Plipdeco worker injured on the job

According to reports, Peter Ramsaran of Cunupia was operating a Gottwa 260 MHC mobile harbour crane from Berth 4 to Berth 3 at 2.30 am, when the crane encountered mechanical failure. Plipdeco said in a statement yesterday that a steering axle spindle broke.

The Seamen and Waterfront Workers’ Trade Union (SWWTU) Point Lisas branch president, Floyd James, said Ramsaran had to be taken to Petrotrin’s Augustus Long Hospital for injuries to the neck, back and spine.

James said the time had come for a united labour movement to force a revolution in the workplace to curb the spate of industrial accidents.

At the march, which saw some 200 Point Lisas workers taking to the streets in Couva, Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) president general, Errol McLeod, warned that workers would embark on a one-day "standstill" if Government failed to implement the OSHA Act.

Addressing scores of workers who braved the inclement weather at yesterday’s march, McLeod said: "We will effect a standstill sometime before the Carnival to demonstrate to Government that workers are running out of patience.

"Implement the OSHA now without any amendments," McLeod said. The OWTU president said the act would benefit workers and raise productivity at the workplace.

Mc Leod said unity among the trade unions was of paramount importance to force Government to ensure that the act is proclaimed.

Public Services’ Association (PSA) president, Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, said the march was the "beginning of total unity" within the labour movement.

She said the ruling party must remember that political power rested in the hands of the working-class.

"It is not the business sector that places you into office, but the ordinary working-class people. If you do not implement the OSHA in its present form — in 2007 we’ll see," Baptiste-Primus thundered.

She also called for a hospital equipped with a specialised burns unit, to be built in the Couva area, given its proximity to the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.

Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) president, Clyde Permell, said teachers were also victims of poor working conditions and cited the cases of two teachers, at Arima and Chaguanas, who were forced to resort to the courts after sustaining injuries at their respective schools.

Also addressing the rally were SWWTU president general Michael Annisette and representatives of the Banking Insurance General Workers Trade Union (BIGWU), Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU) and National Union of Government Federated Workers Union, (NUGFW).

In a statement yesterday, Plipdeco stated: "The crane operator reportedly complained of neck pains and was immediately transported by Plipdeco’s 24-hour ambulance service to the port’s medical facility. He is said to be resting comfortably at present."