PoS Port faces shutdown

The port is already bursting at the seams with hundreds of containers still waiting to be removed from its premises.

On Monday, the TTHA said its members would not be taking cargo from the port to the CES until the problems there and their concerns about their lack of payment for services at the Port-of-Spain CES since 1996, are addressed. TTHA secretary Curtis Seepersad said the hauliers are paid at the Point Lisas port’s CES and while they had raised their concerns about Port-of-Spain with Junior Finance Minister Conrad Enill since July 2004, nothing has been done to date.

The port’s main stakeholders met in an emergency meeting at the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union’s (SWWTU) Wrightson Road headquarters yesterday to attempt to resolve the issue.

The meeting was stormy with the Customs and Excise Division initially taking a lot of flak for the current delays at the CES.

Customs Comptroller Leonard Wattie explained that his division was beset by numerous problems (including some "slackers" in the division), and while they wanted to help "their hands were tied." He found himself on the defensive to explain that Customs was caught between "a rock and a hard place" about how to ensure that manufacturers got their goods off the port on a timely basis, and no illicit materials such as guns or drugs slip past his officers. He said this was why several containers on the port had to undergo 100 percent examination and the situation was a very dynamic one.

However, while all the players agreed about the delays at the CES and the inconveniences they caused to all of them, the meeting swiftly degenerated into chaos as disagreements broke out over the hauliers’ payment concerns at the CES.

According to SWWTU president Michael Annisette, TTHA secretary Curtis Seepersad said even if the CES problems were resolved, the hauliers were not prepared to move cargo from the port to the CES until their payment concerns were addressed by the Finance Ministry. Annisette said this was unacceptable since it threatened the livelihood of dock workers and he warned the hauliers that his union would not provide them with any labour on the port if they carry out this course of action.

The SWWTU president said the hauliers’ actions made no sense to him since they were already handsomely compensated through payments from the importers through numerous charges. Annisette said he had already put the Port Authority of TT (PATT) on notice and the union was prepared to initiate similar action against the hauliers in Point Lisas if necessary.

TT Manufacturers Association president Paul Quesnel described the entire situation as unfortunate, noting that local manufacturers would be hard hit by this latest turn of events. "We need to fix this now," he said.

Contacted yesterday Enill said he was unaware of these developments since he was in the Senate.