Workers of the Lake Asphalt Company are warning the People's National Movement (PNM) Administration that it will lose the La Brea seat, if something is not done to save the company.
Workers protested outside the company's office at Brighton, La Brea this morning.
According to Branch President of the Contractors and General Workers Trade Union, Noble Raeburn, workers were told that the company has been confronted with dire financial constraints.
They now fear that the company may shut its doors and workers will be sent home.
“Throughout the history of La Brea, we have voted PNM, but we cannot put PNM before Lake Asphalt,” he told workers at today’s protest. “We are not against the PNM—let me make that clear—but they must be respectful. We must sit down and we must work out how to have a successful Lake Asphalt, for ALL the employees of Lake Asphalt!”
Councillor Gerald Debisette, a former Lake Asphalt worker, showed up at the protest this morning. He told the workers he was informed that an Inter-Ministerial Committee has been established to review Lake Asphalt's operations and no workers will be sent home in the interim.
However, the workers were not comforted...
“We will wait for a message from the Minister of Energy; nobody else,” Mr Raeburn stated categorically. “Nobody else but the Minister of Energy will be speaking to us about the future of Lake Asphalt!”
The workers are also calling for the company's board to resign.
