Yvonne Ba­boolal

Trinidad Ce­ment Ltd's (TCL) re­ori­en­ta­tion process for for­mer strik­ing work­ers is an act of reprisal on the part of man­age­ment, Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union (OW­TU) pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get is claim­ing. Ro­get said the process, which in­volved tak­ing back work­ers in batch­es of 30, stymied their re­sump­tion of work. He said it was a ploy to keep them out longer.

Scores of work­ers were re­fused en­try in­to the com­pound at Clax­ton Bay on Thurs­day by po­lice who were called out to quell what was de­scribed as a "mob." The work­ers and Ro­get made their way in­to the com­pound when the gates were opened and gath­ered at the can­teen, from where they were lat­er or­dered out. TCL said the work­ers had been in­formed since last week Tues­day they would be tak­en back to work in batch­es of 30.

Ro­get said he does not agree with any­thing TCL gen­er­al man­ag­er Sat­nar­ine Bachew says. Ca­su­al work­ers, who made up half of the TCL work­force of 500-600, were the ones who would suf­fer from the ori­en­ta­tion process, he said. Not­ing the com­pa­ny was com­mit­ted to pay­ing all per­ma­nent work­ers for the du­ra­tion of the re­ori­en­ta­tion, he said ca­su­al labour­ers do not get paid if they do not work.

He said some 300 ca­su­al labour­ers were be­ing re­fused en­try. Ro­get spoke to the me­dia af­ter a near­ly four-hour ses­sion at the In­dus­tri­al Court on St Vin­cent Street, Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, when the union's at­tor­neys, in­clud­ing Dou­glas Mendes, SC, and TCL's in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions rep­re­sen­ta­tives, in­clud­ing Mervyn Rawl­ins, met to set up dates for sub­mis­sions and ar­gu­ments by both par­ties.

Ro­get said TCL had con­tin­ued its op­er­a­tions by hir­ing scab labour­ers who were not com­pe­tent and were be­ing placed in harm's way. He said he was not sure what they were be­ing paid. He not­ed the union's in­dus­tri­al ac­tion had come to an end and the mat­ter had been re­ferred to the court but TCL was still lock­ing out work­ers.

"The union has been com­ply­ing with the law by re­mov­ing its strike camp, but the com­pa­ny con­tin­ues to lock out work­ers and bring ad­di­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, in­clud­ing dogs. "The com­pa­ny has to cre­ate an en­vi­ron­ment of nor­mal­cy, not lock its gates. We want to see nor­mal­cy re­turned at TCL."

Ro­get said TCL made a com­mit­ment at the In­dus­tri­al Court to take less time with the re­ori­en­ta­tion process. He de­scribed the 90-day strike over a wage dis­pute, which end­ed last Sat­ur­day, as suc­cess­ful. "Nowhere in the re­gion will you find work­ers go­ing with­out work. "It's all about eat­ing a food. Not many work­ers can do that."

TCL gen­er­al man­ag­er, Sat­nar­ine Bachew, said the re­ori­en­ta­tion process was a way to get the work­ers to "re­set­tle them­selves." "The gates are not locked. We are re­ori­ent­ing work­ers back to the job," he in­sist­ed. "Nine­ty days is a long time to be away from work," he told the me­dia out­side the court, where he did not stay very long.

Bachew said the re­ori­en­ta­tion of work­ers is an an­nu­al prac­tice at TCL, since it is a job that could re­sult in the loss of life and limb if one is not pre­pared. "They need to set­tle them­selves. One mis­take could re­sult in mil­lions of dol­lars in dam­age."

Bachew said TCL is tak­ing the work­ers back in batch­es be­cause it is im­pos­si­ble to take all of them back at the same time. "Every­body has been on the pay­roll since Tues­day morn­ing," he said, on the ques­tion of salaries. The TCL mat­ter has been set for Ju­ly 18 and Sep­tem­ber 10 at the In­dus­tri­al Court, the con­cil­i­a­tion is­sue in­volv­ing the Min­istry of Labour for Oc­to­ber 2 and the hear­ing for No­vem­ber 9.