Mick­ela Pan­day

Imag­ine spend­ing years build­ing an in­dus­try, los­ing your job when it col­laps­es, fight­ing to keep that in­dus­try alive and then, ten years lat­er, watch­ing plans for its pos­si­ble re­vival un­fold while you are once again out­side the room.

That is where Trinidad and To­ba­go’s steel work­ers find them­selves to­day.

There is an MOU. There are plans for steel, vana­di­um, in­vest­ment and jobs. But the work­ers are still ask­ing a sim­ple ques­tion: Where do we stand? While the Steel Work­ers Union sup­ports the pos­si­bil­i­ty of restart­ing the plant, it has right­ful­ly raised se­ri­ous con­cerns about be­ing ex­clud­ed from dis­cus­sions and not be­ing in­formed be­fore the MOU was signed.

These are not peo­ple who wan­dered in­to this sto­ry yes­ter­day. They built the in­dus­try. They worked in the plant. They lost their liveli­hoods when it closed. And for ten years, they have con­tin­ued to fight for its sur­vival. So be­fore we ap­plaud an­oth­er an­nounce­ment, per­haps we should re­mem­ber how we got here.

In 2011, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was Prime Min­is­ter when the warn­ing signs were de­vel­op­ing. At that time, com­pa­nies op­er­at­ing at Point Lisas were rais­ing se­ri­ous con­cerns with the En­er­gy Min­istry about gas sup­ply. By 2014, the warn­ings had con­tin­ued, in­clud­ing se­vere gas cur­tail­ments and their im­pact on pro­duc­tion and in­vest­ment. Arcelor­Mit­tal was among those com­pa­nies.

Kevin Ram­nar­ine was En­er­gy Min­is­ter. Er­rol McLeod was Labour Min­is­ter. The Gov­ern­ment had the warn­ings. It had the min­istries. It had the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

The Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship had five years to con­front the grow­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of one of the coun­try’s most im­por­tant in­dus­tri­al cen­tres. It did not re­solve the prob­lem.

Then the PNM took of­fice and did ab­solute­ly no bet­ter. It claimed it in­her­it­ed a cri­sis. But in­her­it­ing a cri­sis is not an ex­cuse for fail­ing to act. With­in months, pro­duc­tion had stopped. Work­ers were be­ing laid off and in March 2016, Arcelor­Mit­tal closed the plant and ter­mi­nat­ed its work­force.

And then some­thing re­mark­able hap­pened. The work­ers be­gan look­ing for a way to save the in­dus­try them­selves.

They sought in­vestors. They de­vel­oped an al­ter­na­tive plan. They ap­proached the gov­ern­ment. The work­ers were not sit­ting around wait­ing for the gov­ern­ment to res­cue them. They were try­ing to res­cue an in­dus­try. So the PNM has a ques­tion to an­swer: what did your gov­ern­ment ac­tu­al­ly do to fa­cil­i­tate that ef­fort?

Not what could not be done. Not why the prob­lem was dif­fi­cult. What was done? That is the PNM’s failed record. But this is not just a sto­ry about the past. Ten years lat­er, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is Prime Min­is­ter again. The same plant is back on the Gov­ern­ment’s agen­da. The same work­ers are ask­ing to be in­clud­ed.

So what has changed? And if this time is to be dif­fer­ent, there is an­oth­er ques­tion we can­not avoid: gas.

We are be­ing told about fu­ture gas from projects such as Man­akin-Cocuina and deep­wa­ter de­vel­op­ments such as Ca­lyp­so. These are im­por­tant op­por­tu­ni­ties, but they are not pro­duc­ing gas to­day. Man­akin-Cocuina is still mov­ing to­ward a fi­nal in­vest­ment de­ci­sion, while deep­wa­ter de­vel­op­ments will take time.

Mean­while, ex­ist­ing gas-based in­dus­tries are al­ready un­der pres­sure. So are we build­ing an in­dus­tri­al strat­e­gy around the gas we have, or the gas we hope to have?

If steel is to re­turn, Gov­ern­ment must tell the coun­try where the gas will come from, what it will cost and who will ul­ti­mate­ly bear that cost.

Then there is the ques­tion that should be eas­i­est to an­swer: has any­one seen the full MOU? We know the broad ob­jec­tives. We know the par­ties in­volved. We know Plipde­co is part of the arrange­ment. But what ex­act­ly has Trinidad and To­ba­go agreed to?

What con­ces­sions are be­ing con­tem­plat­ed? What is the State pro­vid­ing? What is the in­vestor com­mit­ting? What pro­tec­tions ex­ist for work­ers? What hap­pens if the project does not pro­ceed? These are not un­rea­son­able ques­tions. They are ques­tions cit­i­zens have a right to ask when pub­lic land, in­fra­struc­ture, en­er­gy and na­tion­al re­sources are in­volved.

A na­tion is not a cor­po­rate con­ces­sion. If this agree­ment is good for Trinidad and To­ba­go, pub­lish it. Let the pub­lic see what is be­ing done in its name. Let the work­ers un­der­stand what it means for them.

The Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship can­not erase the warn­ings it re­ceived. The PNM can­not erase what hap­pened on its watch. And Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, now Prime Min­is­ter again, can­not sim­ply ask the coun­try to trust that this time will be dif­fer­ent be­cause an­oth­er MOU has been signed.

This time, show us. Show us the MOU. Show us the eco­nom­ics. Show us where the gas is com­ing from. Show us what T&T is giv­ing and what T&T is get­ting. And, most im­por­tant­ly, show that the work­ers have a place at the ta­ble.

For ten years, they have lived with the con­se­quences of de­ci­sions made by gov­ern­ments and a multi­na­tion­al com­pa­ny. They should not now have to pay the price for be­ing for­got­ten again.

Be­fore we re­build steel, tell us the deal. Pub­lish the MOU. Then we can de­cide whether this is a na­tion­al in­vest­ment, or sim­ply an­oth­er an­nounce­ment.

Mick­ela Pan­day is the Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front and At­tor­ney at Law