Petrotrin workers protest working conditions

Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union’s president general Errol McLeod slammed the deplorable health and safety standards at the company. McLeod disclosed that laboratory, medical and dispensary staff were recently forced to evacuate their offices when noxious fumes leaked from a gas tank. Remedial repairs, he added, were being performed on the tank at the time.

McLeod said that unsafe conditions were being "aided and abetted" by Government’s delay in proclaiming the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA).

He told workers that unsafe conditions existed throughout the State-owned oil company and at the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission.

McLeod read out a letter the union had written to the Ministry of Labour which called on Government to ensure that the Act was proclaimed. He said rumours about the proposed sale of the oil refinery were making the rounds in high-placed energy circles.

He said Government would only be allowed to sell the refinery, over "the OWTUs dead body."

McLeod dismissed unconfirmed reports that Government had entered into a joint-venture partnership with a foreign multi-national corporation to make Petrotrin financially viable.

Operations at the company’s Gasoline Bond were temporarily shut down during the demonstration. Work resumed at 1 pm.