Angry workers yesterday protested at the front gates of CEMEX/Trinidad Cement Ltd in Claxton Bay for outstanding payments and other issues.
Armed with placards, the workers complained about the disrespectful treatment meted out to them by management and vowed to continue protesting until their issues are settled.
Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union’s branch president Kevin Arjoon said a significant number of workers across all job classifications, as well as retirees, are affected.
He said, “The frustration is mainly by the lack of respect and also the lack of payment for maybe close to eight years, no payment of COLA. They not honouring the collective agreement by paying the gains share, so they are breaching the collective agreement.
“They are unilaterally interfering with people’s pension plan and they have incorrectly calculated people’s pension.
“The retirees are here to demonstrate that level of frustration, because most of them have worked over 40 years in this company and now that they are ready to leave, they are frustrated with what is happening. Some of the members are being unilaterally removed from the pension plan.”
Noting that the last time the union met with management was on March 31, Arjoon said financial documents were supposed to have been provided to the union to calculate the money owed to the workers.
However, he said to date, the company has failed to furnish the documents, which in the past were provided to the union.
Arjoon said without the documents they cannot proceed with the negotiations.
Lamenting that workers were dying without collecting their money, he said in the past three months, eight workers have died.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he said workers continued working, resulting in the company making a significant profit and it is unfair that workers have to protest for what is owed to them
“We hoping that the management are responsible enough to meet with us and sort out these issues, bring these things to a close, give us the financials, allow the union to do what it has to do and bring settlement to these workers. It is too long, eight years,” he added.
Worker Akini Solomon accused management of playing games with the workers’ lives and monies.
He claimed: “They keep telling us they have no money but every other month, you seeing a brand new $500,000 vehicle, hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses. They having parties in fancy hotels for hundreds of thousands of dollars and they telling us they have no money. So where are these monies coming from?”
Solomon also claimed that the company has been interfering with workers medical and pension plans.
Guardian Media tried without success to get a response from the company but messages and calls went unanswered.