Yvonne Ba­boolal

Gas sta­tion pump at­ten­dants have al­ready be­gun to feel the hurt of An­cel Ro­get's im­pend­ing 90 days of war as sev­er­al of them have been tem­porar­i­ly sent home. Op­er­a­tors of a num­ber of ser­vice sta­tions in the South and East said they were forced to close up shop yes­ter­day be­cause their fu­el sold out and new sup­plies had not yet ar­rived.

Pump at­ten­dants, who are paid hourly, were sent home un­til the sit­u­a­tion was rec­ti­fied, they said. The move comes mere days be­fore Car­ni­val, in the midst of pan­ic buy­ing of fu­el by ve­hi­cle own­ers. The pan­ic buy­ing be­gan af­ter Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union (OW­TU) pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get an­nounced last Tues­day morn­ing that the union would start an of­fi­cial strike to­mor­row.

The strike comes af­ter failed ef­forts to se­cure what Ro­get termed de­cent wages for work­ers. The T&T Guardian was told that taxi dri­vers com­prised a large por­tion of the pan­ic buy­ers and were fill­ing up not on­ly their gas tanks, but con­tain­ers as well. Ro­get called it 90 days of war and warned that the strike would hurt. "We sent our at­ten­dants home on stand­by," the op­er­a­tor of Camp­bell's Gas Sta­tion in Pier­re­ville, Ma­yaro, said. "We are closed right now be­cause our fu­el sold out around mid­day." He said they were ex­pect­ing fresh sup­plies lat­er in the af­ter­noon, but had been get­ting less gas than they want­ed. He said they had dif­fi­cul­ty get­ting diesel and pre­mi­um gas. At­ten­dants at Nobbee's Ser­vice Sta­tion in Point-a-Pierre were not sent home yet, but the place was closed when the Guardian called af­ter mid­day.

"Right now we closed...We got some Su­per yes­ter­day, less than we asked for, and it sold out around nine this morn­ing," the op­er­a­tor there said. We or­dered more and are await­ing word from NP." She said if the sit­u­a­tion wors­ened, they would have to send their at­ten­dants home. "If we don't have gas, we have to send them home (tem­porar­i­ly)...We can't pay them if we don't sell," she said. "We're ex­pect­ing it to get worse. "Petrotrin work­ers have not gone on strike yet and we are not get­ting gas. It might be worse on Sat­ur­day when the strike starts." At the Para­mount Ser­vice Sta­tion in Rock Road, Pe­nal, a fish­ing port, fu­el sup­plies were dwin­dling fast. "Our Reg­u­lar sold out. Peo­ple still pan­ic buy­ing. We just got 12,000 litres of Diesel and this has to ral­ly us out un­til to­mor­row." He said if diesel ran out or be­came scarce, the in­comes of a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of vil­lagers would be af­fect­ed. The work­er said some pump at­ten­dants might be sent home un­til the sit­u­a­tion was rec­ti­fied. It is ex­pect­ed that pump at­ten­dants at Mo­hammed's Ser­vice Sta­tion on Frisco Junc­tion, Point Fortin, would be sent home at any­time. The lit­tle fu­el the sta­tion got on Wednes­day was sold out by 7 am yes­ter­day. morn­ing, a work­er said.

He said: "Right now we just wait­ing. To­day a lit­tle more tough. The Gov­ern­ment promised to con­tin­ue to pro­vide fu­el but we don't know. "The boss might have to send the at­ten­dants home. You can't pay peo­ple to sit down."

Diesel sup­plies ran out at NP Ser­vice Sta­tion in Fyz­abad on Wednes­day. "They told us the trucks run­ning but we not see­ing any­thing to­day," the op­er­a­tor there said. Sup­plies were dwin­dling at Bartholomew's Ser­vice Sta­tion in Chase Vil­lage, as the pan­ic buy­ing con­tin­ued. In Ch­agua­nas and in the North and East-West Cor­ri­dor, ser­vice sta­tion op­er­a­tors told the Guardian their fu­el sup­plies were nor­mal. "Peo­ple com­ing from quite Debe and Pe­nal to buy gas," an em­ploy­ee of Wilco's Gas Sta­tion in Mon­trose said. "Our gas may last for the day but we get­ting fu­el every day."

"We're busy but we have fu­el," a work­er at Al­lan Lee He­ung Ser­vice Sta­tion in Ari­ma said. At Mitchell's Ser­vice Sta­tion in Boissierre Vil­lage, Mar­aval, an em­ploy­ee said: "We get­ting a lil pan­ic buy­ing in be­tween but every­thing nor­mal." At the Noel Lawrence Gas Sta­tion in St James, the Guardian was told: "Every­body just fill­ing up. I don't know what wrong with them. Gas is on the mar­ket. I get­ting gas as usu­al."

NP says:

An­na Lisa Ben­jamin, cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er at Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um, said ser­vice sta­tions in South were run­ning out be­cause they had small­er stor­age. "Port-of-Spain doesn't have a prob­lem be­cause sta­tions here have larg­er stor­age," she said. She said pan­ic buy­ing and a high­er de­mand around Car­ni­val were caus­ing some sta­tions to sell out. Ben­jamin said NP had ex­tend­ed shifts to en­able work­ers to de­liv­er fu­el to cit­i­zens. She said: "Our trucks are on the road. This morn­ing they went to Debe and in the af­ter­noon to San Fer­nan­do and en­vi­rons. "As we speak, sup­plies are on the way to Dun­can Vil­lage." Ben­jamin said NP had a con­tin­gency plan in place to de­liv­er fu­el when work­ers went on strike.