Trinmar
workers protest man's death, unsafe job conditions
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
05 27 07
TRINMAR workers on Thursday protested what they
called the unsafe conditions on the job, following
the death of a worker and injury of two others
earlier this week.
Oilfields Workers Trade Union Trinmar branch president
Bernesto Kesar also said the company planned to
shut down the facilities, but workers would not
allow that.
The workers were advised to maintain production
at all costs, but warned to approach the offshore
fields with due caution and to work safe.
The
workers were discouraged, however, from going
on any facilities that were deemed unsafe to human
life, following the death of Ricardo "Deadman" Felix,
39, and injury to Richard Phillip, 23, and Kirk
Peters, 34, in an explosion on one of the company's
offshore oil platforms off Point Fortin. The three
were workers of Trinjet Services Limited
Arnold Corneal, communications manager at State-owned
Petrotrin, parent company to Trinmar, said an investigation
had already started, adding the union had expressed
concern over the workers' safety.
Kesar said the situation was becoming unbearable
with the accidents, but shutting down the fields
would not solve the situation.
OWTU's
vice president, Ancel Roget, said: "The
company is not aggressively taking up the mantle
of repairing the offshore facilities and they are
capitalising on the opportunity to do what they
really want to do, which is to shut down the facilities.
By so doing, the workers would lose their jobs
and we want to preserve jobs and lives."
He said the company could not just take a decision
to shut down just like that.
"They have to have dialogue. If not, the
workers will respond to suit," he said.
Roget said company officials have contacted the
union hierarchy and a meeting would be held on
a day to be agreed upon next week to discuss the
issue.
Trinidad
Express
Saturday, May 26th 2007
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©2007 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
