Tensions mounted at Trinidad Cement Ltd, Claxton Bay, yesterday when returning strike workers were told only permanent employees were being considered for reintegration into the company's operations. The announcement was made yesterday by TCL's human resource manager Keith Johnson as he addressed workers entering the plant after their 90-day strike.
This sparked outrage among both permanent and casual workers, who said the issue of casual employees must be addressed before any work could begin in earnest. The workers were confined to the weighbridge area of the plant by TCL management with metal barricades and armed police and security officers. OTWU president general Ancel Roget and vice president Carlton Gibson accused the company of trying to intimidate workers.
But after an outcry from the workers, the management soon gave in and allowed returning employees to sign an employee re-orientation schedule so they could all return to work. Addressing the workers, Johnson said: "We are now in a place where the focus has to be on the reintegration and the reintroduction of employees into the plant. Insofar as to what has transpired, some unfortunate things have taken place but we are not going to dwell on those things.
"Basically emotions would have been expired over the 90 days plus, as far as employees' energies and management's energies go. At this stage we have one thing in common, which is really to ensure that the primary mandate of this organisation is to focus only on delivering cement to our customers. That is our mandate."
Earlier on, workers gathered at the strike camp from around 5 am and were greeted with locked gates for a second day. Around 7.15 am, TCL's Johnson informed Gibson that they would only allow workers onto the compound in groups of five so that they could be properly addressed. However, the workers refused, saying, "We left together and we will return together."
After 30 minutes of prayer and an address by Roget, the workers crowded the front gate where the OWTU leader and Gibson met with Johnson and told him the closure of the gates violated the Industrial Relations Act. Roget said the issue of wage negotiations had been referred to the Industrial Court, making it illegal for either the company or the union to engage in industrial action.
It was the first time that the TCL management acceded to a union request. They also conceded when Roget told them he would lead all workers into the plant together, and not in groups of five. The row continued as Johnson also informed workers of the implementation of a biometric clocking machine, which Roget argued had not been agreed on.
While workers were already incensed over Johnson's announcement that only permanent employees were being considered first, the rain came and they defied TCL management and an attempt by the police to confine them to one area, but made their way into the canteen.