Pipe Dreams?

Former Caroni employees spent last Thursday and Friday, baking in the hot sun with  looks of anticipation and hope marking their faces.

They were invited to take part in an open-day registration session to help them train for new careers. But many doubted whether this  will be able to priovide them and their families with sustainble income. A few hundred  workers showed up to the seminars but left feeling like nothing was accomplished. Pooran Ramadine, an operator at the Usine refinery for the last 18 years said he came to the registration hoping to train to become an electrical technician. But he is doubtful this can ever happen. “A lot of us are not sure what is taking place. All we know is we need to get one of the registration forms to find out what our skills are and after the registration we need to visit the booths and see what is happening. All we know for sure is that it is a re-training exercise and we are not  guaranteed any jobs,” said Ramadine. He added that most of the people who were laid off were over the age of 40 and asking them to “go back to school” may be a bigger task than they can handle. “What we need are jobs. A guy who is 40 can’t be expected to retrain for a new career. He is nearing pension and retirement age, where is he going to get work at that age? This is only for younger people. Because they would have enough time to retrain and still get a good job later on,” said Ramadine. Almost every ex-worker held the same view. Many of the older men were walking around with disillusioned looks on their faces, saying”this is not for me.” A letter sent to the workers by Minister of Agriculture, John Rahael, sought to offer hope. “Today we have taken yet another step toward keeping this promise by hosting this instructive and empowering Open Day Registration Session designed with your goals in mind,” it said. 

According to the letter the career options presented to the ex-workers of Caroni have been guided by concerns sent to the Ministry. As a result, a two day registration and information process was set up at Gilbert Park, Couva, and Metal Industries Co Ltd, Usine St Madeleine for the workers to attend. There were about 14 booths set up by various training institutions like MIC, the National Army, HYPE, YTEPP, UWI, TTIT, the Ministry of Agriculture, Cipriani Labour College and the National Employment Service.But the ex-workers were not convinced that this plan would benefit them in finding jobs to feed their families. The Employers Consultative Association (ECA) were the organisers for the event. They handed out registration forms to all the ex-workers and assisted them in filling the forms out. They also provided financial counseling for those who were interested. “About 95 percent of the workers completed the registration forms for the different programmes. And we expect to have many more by the end of the day,” said a representative from the ECA. The workers visited each booth, where they were given  an idea of what each  offered and after to decide what programme is right for them. At the end of the day, the forms were taken to create a database and then hopefully place the workers, in the different institutions. Training is expected to start this month. But the former workers are not easily convinced. Premdass Mahadeo, 50, was a clerk at Usine. According to him, this is just a show put on by the Ministry to say they did something. He, like most of the other workers, came to the registration hoping to find job opportunities, but none presented itself. “I am  50 years old, I want to be able to retire one day. Now I have nothing to look forward too. I don’t know what to do,” said Mahadeo. But the younger ones were also skeptical about the Ministr’s efforts to provide alternative . They were indecisive about signing up, saying they had no guarantee that after the training program they would be offered jobs.

According to some, they will be competing with university graduates and they felt this task was too large for them to handle. “No one would hire a laid-off Caroni workers with a certificate over a university graduate in engineering,” said one worker. The workers also vented their dissatisfaction in the All Sugar and General Workers Trade Union, saying the union had  abandoned them.. “Although Caroni workers were laid off the unions are still getting their salaries every month. Up to now no trade union representative has come to Usine to sympathize with us,” said one worker. But the institutions represented had a different perspective. Many of them felt the ex-workers stood to benefit a lot from the workshop. Joan Superville, a lecturer at HYPE, said the institution was asked by the ECA to set up a booth for the workers to sign up. “So far we have had a good response. People showed a genuine interest in getting into the courses we offer,” said Superville. She said while she understood  the workers’ concerns,  most of the courses offered were developed for younger people. She added that because of this, HYPE, along with most of the other institutions will tailor courses to meet the needs of the ex-workers. “They were concerned about the course being full time, since many of them need to find a fast source of income, even with the training in progress. But when will ensure that the hours and venues can meet the needs of those interested,” said Superville. She said many of the workers asked if the institutions would be able to help them find jobs after the training period was over. However, she could not guarantee that jobs will be found for the workers. “We are not an employment agency or a placement agency we are a training agency,” she said bluntly.

Superville said it is very eye-opening to meet these ex-Caroni workers. Many of them  have been working for over thirty years and are not literate and this may be one of the factors dissuading them from applying for training. “I think there may be people who are scared about what is going to happen. They suddenly find themselves in a position where they cannot provide for themselves and their family and they are thrust into the general workforce again fighting others for jobs. This can make them set barriers for themselves, stopping them from even trying something new,” she said. However, she feels there is a genuine need for this type of workshop, so that the workers are aware they do have options. MIC was one of the other institutions represented and many of the workers flocked to this booth first because it is an institution they recognized Dawn Calendar, a placement officer for MIC said the ex-workers need to realize that they are walking around with a wealth of experience that companies would die to have.  However, she added, the problem may be in the salaries the workers are asking for. “A lot of company’s want Caroni workers because of the experience they have. But many will not choose to go because they want large salaries. So they should be thinking about adding training to their experience to better market themselves,” said Calendar. The most popular booths were MIC, HYPE, the army recruitment booth and UWI. But many of the older workers left without bothering to fill out a form. Other, however, took the chance and applied, hoping something good will come  out of it.