Strike leaves Bechtel on brink of closure

DESPITE assurances by Prime Minister Patrick Manning that Government was trying to resolve the nine-week impasse at Atlantic LNG’s Train IV construction site, the project’s main contractor, Bechtel International, indicated its final batch of letters of termination should have been distributed sometime yesterday. Some 100 employees, including on-site managers, engineers, sub-contract administrators and clerical employees, have been notified of the company’s decision during an early morning meeting yesterday. The multi-national construction giant had advised employees since Friday March 19, of its “demobilisation” procedures as company executives determined there was no “foreseeable” end to the industrial action.

The company has since issued its first batch of termination letters to employees whose last working day is April 30. The letters were said to have been handed out on a department-to-department basis at the end of March. However, at a breakfast meeting on Wednesday hosted by the PNM San Fernando East constituency, Prime Minister Manning assured members of the South business community that “discussions” were underway to end the impasse. Strike action at Atlantic LNG’s Train IV project has been ongoing for the past nine weeks with workers calling for improved wages and working conditions.

The fallout over the issue of sectoral minimum wages led to the resignation of Point Fortin MP Lawrence Achong from Manning’s Cabinet as Labour Minister. Meanwhile, the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce, in a release yesterday, said it wished to categorically disassociate itself from comments reported in the Express and accredited to Ernest Thompson. Thompson was quoted as stating “it affects workers in the construction industry and even the banks and the Chamber of Commerce have been supporting us because they believe that the struggle is justified.” The Chamber in its statement yesterday said, it is  “not and has never been in support of this wildcat strike which we believe is unprecedented in the industrial relations landscape since it occurred in the absence of a collective bargaining process.

“The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce has been extremely vocal on this matter and in fact our new president, Christian Mouttet, in his inaugural address commended the Government for not implementing sectoral wages at this time. “We wish to reiterate that the TTIC remains committed to the view that sectoral wages, including the kind being demanded by the striking contracted workers on the ALNG Train IV construction site, is not in the best interest of our country,” added the Chamber.