De­spite as­sur­ances from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar there will be no fu­el short­ages fol­low­ing the threat of a strike at Petrotrin, pre­mi­um and diesel fu­el ran out at sev­er­al ser­vice sta­tions in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day. Signs, stat­ing "sor­ry no diesel", were post­ed at the Ra­hamut Ser­vice Sta­tion, Cross Cross­ing, San Fer­nan­do. Traf­fic backed up as far as Dun­can Vil­lage as mo­torists lined up to fill up their ve­hi­cles fol­low­ing re­ports that the strike will be­gin on Sat­ur­day.

At the NP Quik Shoppe, Cross Cross­ing, there was no pre­mi­um gas or diesel. Ser­vice at­ten­dants tried un­suc­cess­ful­ly to reg­u­late the traf­fic flow as mo­torists con­verged from every di­rec­tion, try­ing to get to the gas pump. At the sta­tion on Rush­worth Street, San Fer­nan­do, traf­fic was backed up along the San Fer­nan­do By­pass. A sign say­ing "no diesel" was placed near the pump.

A pump at­ten­dant told the T&T Guardian fu­el tanks were al­ready run­ning low but tankers were op­er­at­ing so a fresh sup­ply would be be avail­able lat­er in the day. "Peo­ple are pan­ic-buy­ing. We are get­ting fu­el but it is com­ing slow­ly," the at­ten­dant added. At Boodoos­ingh Ser­vice Sta­tion on La­dy Hailes Av­enue, pump at­ten­dants were sent home ear­ly af­ter fu­el ran out.

On Sun­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar as­sured there would be no gas short­ages as Gov­ern­ment had con­tin­gency plans in the event that the OW­TU made good on its strike threat. At 9 am yes­ter­day, OW­TU's pres­i­dent gen­er­al, An­cel Ro­get, served of­fi­cial strike no­tice to Petrotrin's pres­i­dent Ken­neth Al­lum. The com­pa­ny lat­er stat­ed in a re­lease it had of­fered a five per cent wage in­crease over three years, while the union want­ed 75 per cent. Petrotrin al­so said it of­fered an en­hanced hous­ing al­lowance, not­ing that the low­est paid Petrotrin work­er gets $11,000 a month.

How­ev­er, Ro­get de­nied that, say­ing it was a "ma­li­cious, de­cep­tive lie." He said Petrotrin work­ers risked their lives and limb to fu­el the econ­o­my of T&T and de­served every cent. He said it was un­fair for Petrotrin to com­pare the oil in­dus­try to the pub­lic sec­tor, since Petrotrin work­ers had to pay ad­di­tion­al in­sur­ance pre­mi­ums be­cause of the high-risk na­ture of their jobs.