Trinmar workers down tools again

DESPITE agreeing to a cut in wage demands from 22 percent to 17 percent, Trinmar workers once again downed tools in yet another protest after Petrotrin executives refused to budge from their original 11 percent offer.

The action was repeated throughout the State-owned oil company, as well as the National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (NP) as workers expressed their annoyance over the slow pace of wage negotiations by the company. Oilfields Workers Trade Union Trinmar branch president Ancil Roget said at the centre of the disagreement was the company’s failure to reach a “speedy” settlement concerning the 2002-2005 collective bargaining agreement. “Workers have been extremely tolerant so far with the company’s slow pace of discussions, and have agreed that the time had come for the company to finally settle all outstanding wage agreements,” he said.

Roget added: “Workers have decided to take whatever action to bring home the settlement.” He said that from 6 am to 10 am yesterday, workers brought the Petrotrin-owned subsidy to a virtual standstill, as a precursor to full-scale industrial action, if the company continued to “drag its feet” on the issue. And he pointed out that workers had also agreed to the compromise position of a 17 percent increase on the fixed wage increase while the company had refused to budge from its original 11 percent offer. He also alluded to the recent 15 percent wage increase that was accorded to both public servants and workers attached to the San Fernando City Corporation, saying that workers in the vital energy sector were also deserving of the same equitable treatment. “We are willing to meet with the company at any time to finally reach a settlement on this issue,” he said, adding that shift bonus as well as workers’ Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), also formed part of the wage negotiations. Roget also reiterated workers’ willingness to work together with the company to ensure that Trinmar operations realised its full potential in the development of the nation’s energy sector.