The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NATUC) has called on the Prime Min­is­ter and the Gov­ern­ment to re­con­sid­er their re­fusal to con­sult with the Steel Work­ers' Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SWUTT) re­gard­ing the planned re­open­ing of the for­mer Arcelor­Mit­tal steel plant at the Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate.

In a state­ment is­sued to­day, Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette wel­comed the planned in­vest­ment by Pin­na­cle Steel and Vana­di­um Cor­po­ra­tion, op­er­at­ing through its lo­cal sub­sidiary, Ibis Steel Com­pa­ny, to re­fur­bish and restart the fa­cil­i­ty.

While ac­knowl­edg­ing the project's po­ten­tial to gen­er­ate em­ploy­ment and stim­u­late eco­nom­ic growth, NATUC said in­dus­tri­al re­vival must be ac­com­pa­nied by mean­ing­ful so­cial di­a­logue and re­spect for or­gan­ised labour.

Re­ject­ing ar­gu­ments that SWUTT lacks stand­ing, NATUC said the union has decades of in­dus­try ex­pe­ri­ence, in­sti­tu­tion­al knowl­edge and tech­ni­cal com­pe­tence. SWUTT al­so con­tin­ues to rep­re­sent for­mer work­ers dis­placed by Arcelor­Mit­tal's shut­down in 2016.

Ac­cord­ing to NATUC, more than 45 per cent of the 2,000 work­ers af­fect­ed by the clo­sure, in­clud­ing 644 for­mer per­ma­nent em­ploy­ees, have ex­pressed in­ter­est in re­turn­ing to work.

The union said it is not seek­ing au­to­mat­ic re-em­ploy­ment, but rather fair con­sid­er­a­tion for ex­pe­ri­enced work­ers whose skills could prove valu­able dur­ing the plant's re­fur­bish­ment and recom­mis­sion­ing.

"So­cial di­a­logue should not be re­gard­ed as an ob­sta­cle to in­vest­ment. When prop­er­ly con­duct­ed, it strength­ens trans­paren­cy, builds trust, re­duces con­flict and con­tributes to or­der­ly in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions."

Be­yond re-em­ploy­ment, NATUC raised sev­er­al un­re­solved is­sues stem­ming from the 2016 clo­sure.

The um­brel­la body called for trans­paren­cy re­gard­ing the liq­ui­da­tion process, the sta­tus of the liq­uida­tor and out­stand­ing sums owed to for­mer work­ers who are act­ing as cred­i­tors.

It al­so called for the swift com­ple­tion of the Re­trench­ment and Sev­er­ance Ben­e­fits (Amend­ment) Bill, 2026, to strength­en leg­isla­tive pro­tec­tions for work­ers dur­ing cor­po­rate in­sol­ven­cies.

Giv­en that the Point Lisas fa­cil­i­ty has re­mained idle for a decade, NATUC stressed that safe­ty must be a pri­or­i­ty.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion called for strict ad­her­ence to the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health (OSH) Act, com­pre­hen­sive risk as­sess­ments and prop­er train­ing be­fore op­er­a­tions re­sume.

NATUC urged the Prime Min­is­ter to grant SWUTT Pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Bai­ley an au­di­ence to present the union's per­spec­tive.

It is al­so ad­vo­cat­ing for tri­par­tite en­gage­ment among the Gov­ern­ment, in­vestors and labour to help achieve a sta­ble in­dus­tri­al restart.