Andy Cook, 55, a former supervisor who was laid off in March last year, is now washing cars for a living and says he is doing it for the love of his daughter. Cook, who supervised about 40 people on his job at Tube City Ltd at the Pt Lisas Port, Couva, also gave up a degree he was pursuing to help his daughter start her dream of becoming a lawyer.
His last child, she is a 17-year old Debe High graduate who has taken the first steps towards a law degree. “Some people may not want to do a job beneath what they were doing. But I don’t mind. I am doing it for my daughter. I always want the best for my children,” Cook said.
Cook, a father of three other grown children, drives from his San Fernando home daily to WashTec, the car wash company, on Munroe Road, Chaguanas. He foam washes vehicles at the car wash opened a couple of months ago by a “comrade” still employed at ArcelorMittal but fearful of losing his job.
“He is uncertain about his future with the company. He wants to have something to fall back on. He asked me to work for him,” Cook, who is paid a flat salary, said. Recalling the dreadful period right after he was laid off from the job he did for 33 years, Cook said, “I was anxious. I didn’t sleep well for four to five months.
“But no matter how late I went to sleep, I would still get up the same time I used to get up when I was working.” He said his son, who worked as a despatcher with Tube City, was also laid off.
“We were the only breadwinners in the family,” he said.
Tube City, a leading multi-national provider of industrial mill services for steel makers, laid off 600 workers in March and another 40 in December last year. The company was contracted to Arcelor Mittal to provide stevedoring and mill services. Tube City management said there was a reduced demand for steel products internationally and its contract with ArcelorMittal expired earlier in the year.
Cook, an executive member of the Steel Workers’ Union and branch president at Tube City, said he spent the first several months fighting the causes of the laid off workers. His wife, who had been home for a long time, found a job. His daughter got a job as an On The Job Trainee teaching assistant with the San Fernando Boys’ AC school on Coffee Street and earned a stipend.
But Cook said although she found a job, she is 17 and he is still responsible for her.
“She didn’t ask to come here. I feel as a parent I owe it to her to take care of her. Maybe when she crosses 18 she could be on her own. Right now, I still have to be responsible for her.”
Cook said he had completed a diploma in health and safety at the Cipriani Labour College and was about to pay for the final two years to get his full degree when he decided to put that on hold and pay for his daughter’s law classes instead. He claimed workers did not get the full amount of severance benefits when they were laid off in March last year and the money soon ran out.
“I also had loan payments that were in arrears and had to find something to do.” Cook said his faith and martial arts knowledge are now helping him cope with being laid off.