Yara
workers begin strike
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
01 20 08
Workers at Yara Trinidad Ltd plan to walk out
at noon today on a legal strike which the Oilfield
Workers Trade union (OWTU) has said could last
up to three months.
The union served strike notice on the company
at about midday on Wednesday.
An
OWTU team led by first vice president Ancil Roget
and including branch president Sylvan Wilson
went to Yara’s Point Lisas compound where
they served official strike notice on Yara officials.
Roget vowed that the company would never be the
same again. He said that workers were prepared
to stay away from their jobs for a maximum of three
months.
“This is a last resort. It is the first
time in about ten years that we are officially
serving notice of legal strike action. The last
time we did this was in 1998 on behalf of UWI workers,” Roget
said.
“The company is refusing to treat properly
with the issue of bonus plans, which they had proposed
after the union made a proposal of profit sharing,” Roget
said. He added that an all night meeting was held
on Saturday and the company refused to allow the
union to be part of the setting of production targets.
“The company seems to be against profit
sharing. They are saying that there is a current
bonus in place that is based on production, but
we said that if that is the case we should set
the realistic targets,” Roget said.
“We must be involved in shaping the targets
of productivity, because if we don’t, the
targets could be set above the workers’ reach,” he
said.
Roget warned that a strike is meant to hurt economically.
He said the company could lose $100 million as
a result of the strike.
Contacted
for comment Yara’s Human Resource
Manager Fitzroy Yearwood said a statement would
be issued but none was forthcoming up to late yesterday
evening.
Negotiations deadlocked
Negotiations for the 2007- 2010 industrial agreement
between Yara and the OWTU began in August last
year.
After 33 bilateral meetings the company in December
reported a breakdown in talks to the Ministry of
Labour.
Seven
meetings were held at the ministry’s
offices at Riverside Plaza, Besson Street, Port-of-Spain,
between December 4 and January 8 but the Ministry
of Labour issued an unresolved certificate and
mandated that the union’s president general
Errol Mc Leod meet with Yara president Mark Loquan
to establish perimeters for both teams to explore.
Story
by Radhica Sookraj from The Trinidad Guardian
- sandy9@ttol.co.tt
The
Trinidad Guardian
Saturday 19th January, 2008
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