International Labour Organisation Head Says Steel Workers In T&T Needed Social Protection Measures

By Wesley Gibbings
CMC Trinidad Correspondent

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Apr. 20, (CMC) – The Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Guy Ryder, has suggested that national “social protection” measures are needed, to avoid problems such as those faced by over 600 recently-dismissed local workers of the international steel manufacturer, ArcelorMittal.

Speaking with the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) following several meetings with government, labour and business representatives, earlier this week, Ryder referred to the current standoff, in which the workers face the prospect of going without severance and pension payments.

He said it was unfortunate that people losing their jobs in the steel industry, here, did not have access to unemployment benefits and severance pay. The company’s US$70 million plant shut its doors in March, following a month-long suspension of production.

Ryder told CMC that had social protection measures been in place, he believes the workers would have been prepared to take up other positions elsewhere in the workforce.

“All of the experience shows, that where workers who have been displaced are able to have full back-up or, at least, minimum social assistance or social protection, they find it easy to move from one place to the next,” Ryder said.

“If you know that if you lose your job tomorrow, you are on the street, you are on the breadline, you will cling to what you have … and it’s a rational reaction,” he added.

Citing a global over-supply of steel, AccelorMittal’s operations in Trinidad were suspended last November and retrenchment notices were served on its entire workforce in December.

The company had begun negotiations with the representative Steel Workers Union of Trinidad and Tobago (SWUTT) focusing on “alternative functions (for workers) on a temporary basis outside of their normal duties” and immediate paid leave for those with accrued vacation days.

This was rejected by the union and the international steel plant subsequently announced that it had “no option but to begin a process of laying-off workers”, according to a statement from the company.

The displaced workers have been engaged in a series of public protests and, earlier this month, stormed a meeting of company creditors and confronted the police there. Several persons were injured in the fracas.

Labour Minister, Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, a former trade unionist, has promised there will be no repeat of the AccelorMitta situation and has vowed to seek alternative employment for the displaced workers.