(Trinidad Express) Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (PATT) general manager Colin Lucas yesterday called for harsher methods to deal with port workers after another shutdown of the Port of Port of Spain yesterday.
“We have to find some way to engage workers and their representatives and let them understand the potential consequences that their actions are having on them. We are shooting ourselves in the head,” Lucas said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Workers walked off the job yesterday morning, citing non-payment of the second tranche of backpay owed to them.
“But we promised to pay the workers before Carnival, so this is premature action,” Lucas said.
Only the barrel collection area was open yesterday, while the cargo handling, clearance and loading areas were unmanned.
“I am not optimistic about when operations would restart because there was no reason for this walkout, so I cannot say what we need to address to get them back on the job.
“It’s not like the union was involved so we could sit with them. Who do we talk to?” Lucas asked. “This is totally irresponsible and unacceptable behaviour and the workers need to understand that.”
Lucas said as much as 70 per cent of the port’s income came from transshipments and the action by the workers was costing transshipment companies.
The strike action was unsanctioned by the governing union, the Seamen and Waterfront Workers’ Trade Union (SWWTU), as union leader Michael Annisette only returned from a union conference in Belgium early yesterday morning.
Annisette said he was meeting with his executive to discuss the issues leading to the walk-off.
“In addition to the non-payment of the second tranche, I am hearing that the workers are upset over the company cancellation of an employee calypso competition,” he said in a brief telephone interview.
Transport Minister Devant Maharaj, who intervened in the stalled negotiations at the port last month and initiated a partial sign-off, yesterday said he spoke with PATT chairman Joseph Toney on the matter and was told Toney was heading to the port.
“The issue is not sanctioned by the union, as far as I know. It’s really workers being disgruntled by the fact that their backpay payments—the second tranche—are not being done in a timely manner according to them. The union has not gotten involved,” he said.
The simultaneous shutdown yesterday raised concerns among the members of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA).
“Members of the TTMA, who are still recouping their losses from industrial action at the nation’s ports in December 2011, are already feeling the impact of the current work stoppage,” the Association said in a release yesterday.
The TTMA called on the private sector to play a more active role in ensuring the viability of the ports and bring about a permanent solution to the “inefficiency, poor productivity and congestion” at the ports.
“Also a recent study by the (World) Bank showed that for an exporting country, having inefficient ports can be the equivalent of being 60 per cent farther away from its target markets.
“It also notes that efficient ports drive GDP growth and, as such, governments around the world are looking to private partners to bring operating efficiency and capital investments to port operations,” the TTMA said.
