TCL workers gearing up for protest again

On April 5, scores of workers participated in a noisy placard demonstration to express their frustration over the company’s failure to honour an agreement to pay workers approximately $20 million in back pay for the 2009-2011 and 2012-2014 bargaining periods.

Oilfield Workers Trade Union TCL branch president Ahmad Mohammed said yesterday the company’s management, at a meeting at the Trinidad Hilton on April 6, had promised to respond to the union’s concerns in writing by April 11.

“The union is very concerned that the company has failed to uphold their end and their commitment for furnishing certain information to the union with a view to bringing closure to these outstanding issues with regard to our $20 million dollars in shares that remain outstanding since 2015, as well as the change of rates in our salaries and the payment of back pay to workers which is owed to workers since January 2015,” Mohammed said.

“One commitment was to give a written update and report on the status of the issue of issuing shares to the workers. We would have received verbal information that it would take the company from now until eternity to acquire the shares for workers. So we had requested that information in writing from the company so at least the union would be justified in making that decision if it is to change its position to take cash instead of shares.

“Such information has not been forthcoming from the company in writing and they would have given a date of last Monday (April 10) to provide that information. By the Tuesday they were supposed to furnish to us a management action plan with respect to how we would go forward with the other things,” he said.

“To date nothing has been forthcoming and the workers are agitating for action as well.” Over 400 permanent and 200 casual workers at TCL, Trinidad Packaging Limited and Trinidad Ponsa Manufacturing Limited TPM are affected by the non-payment of the back pay.