Apr 2012 Financial News

TCL Mayo plant reopens

Apr 27, 2012

FOR THE first time in 61 days, operations at Trinidad Cement Limited’s (TCL) Mayo Plant resumed yesterday under the watchful eyes of police and security officers posted at the remote rural plant in Mayo, Gasparillo.

Chaotic scenes played out on Wednesday morning at the plant when a shuttle bus contracted by TCL attempted to carry in an assessment team comprising 24 former striking workers inside the plant. The plant has been shut down for the past 60 days following commencement of strike action by workers led by the Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU).

When Newsday visited on Thursday morning, a tent to accommodate private security officers was pitched at the entrance of the plant, and a shuttle bus transporting workers escorted by police and private security was able to drive in without any interference from striking workers.

A senior TCL official confirmed that a complete assessment of machinery was done on Wednesday, a test run was completed and operations were expected to resume yesterday.

The move to restart the plant caused heated confrontation between striking workers and police outside the plant. The shuttle bus was blocked by protesters.

In the end, three striking TCL workers were arrested. One of them was charged with endangering the life of a toddler. The cases are currently before the courts.

A company source said the workers were part of an assessment team who were going into the plant to check on machinery and equipment since the plant was shut down as a result of the strike. The source said it was the first time that workers were going into the plant since the strike.

Police reports stated, at 9 am, a shuttle bus carrying 24 employees to the plant was about to enter the driveway when the striking workers blocked the vehicle. At least twelve police officers who were on the scene intervened and clashed with the protesters.

The tyres of three police vehicles, two from the Gasparillo Station and one from the Task Force, were punctured with nails placed along the roadway by the striking workers on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the front windscreen of a truck belonging to a contractor who was in the process of removing old tyres and debris which were used to block the entrance to the Mayo plant was smashed.

Police officers are expressing dissatisfaction with the behaviour of the striking workers. Acknowledging that the workers have a right to strike, police say they do not have the right to engage in any unlawful act perpetrated on law abiding citizens. Police officers reminded the striking workers that TCL workers also have a right to go to work and any worker wishing to do so, cannot be molested or attacked. To do such a thing, the officers warned, would attract the full brunt of the law.

“Imagine this, there are striking workers using slingshots and shooting projectiles at TCL security during the night,” a policeman said. Police sources urged that law and order be maintained saying there is no need for and no purpose can be served by act of violence and intimidation.

Days into the strike, TCL employees were virtually trapped in the company’s Claxton Bay compound when protesters blocked the entrance with burning debris and also threw barrels of oil along the roadway. And in another act of violence, the windows of a maxi-taxi transporting TCL workers — mainly women — to their vehicles after a day’s work, was smashed.


Source:
Newsday
Friday April 27, 2012

http://www.newsday.co.tt/business/0,159186.html