Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Port work­ers yes­ter­day staged an­oth­er protest over out­stand­ing wages and al­leged­ly un­safe work­ing con­di­tions, say­ing re­peat­ed ap­peals for an­swers and re­pairs had brought lit­tle re­lief.

The ac­tion fol­lows ear­li­er demon­stra­tions by em­ploy­ees, who say they re­main on 2013 salaries while fac­ing in­ad­e­quate toi­let fa­cil­i­ties, rat in­fes­ta­tions and oth­er un­re­solved work­place prob­lems. A court in­junc­tion bars work­ers from strik­ing.

Work­ers are de­mand­ing clear in­for­ma­tion about back­pay and im­me­di­ate im­prove­ments to ba­sic fa­cil­i­ties.

Port em­ploy­ees Ter­ry Stevens and Kevin Al­leyne said frus­tra­tion had mount­ed over the han­dling of their com­plaints.

“We’re fed up,” Stevens said. “We’re work­ing on a 2013 salary, we’re in 2026.”

Dur­ing the ear­li­er protests, Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union pres­i­dent gen­er­al Michael An­nisette said em­ploy­ees had act­ed in­de­pen­dent­ly of the union and stressed that their demon­stra­tions did not con­sti­tute strike ac­tion. He raised con­cerns about unan­swered cor­re­spon­dence to man­age­ment and called for dis­cus­sions to ad­dress wage dis­par­i­ties and out­stand­ing col­lec­tive agree­ments.

Al­leyne said the lat­est ac­tion re­flect­ed ac­cu­mu­lat­ed frus­tra­tion.

“Every­body watch­ing at the out­come, but it has a cause. We didn’t get here overnight,” he said.

He said work­ers re­peat­ed­ly re­port­ed blocked uri­nals, leak­ing toi­lets and oth­er main­te­nance prob­lems, on­ly to be told to wait.

He al­so com­plained about rats, pi­geons and in­ad­e­quate lock­ers.