After working for 35 years at the ArcelorMittal plant, single mother Joanette Pariag is worried that she will no longer be able to support her daughter’s school expenses.
Pariag, 54, a former port co-ordinator in the Port Operations Department, said yesterday that her daughter Jade is a third-year University of the West Indies student at the Faculty of Medical Sciences.
“I must be worried, because how many more ports are there in the country that will hire a port co-ordinator?” a worried Pariag, who was with the company since it was owned by Iron and Steel Company of T&T (ISCOTT), asked.
“I really don’t know what to do. I don’t have any alternative work and as to how I am going to take care of my child.”
Although GATE covers tuition expenses for Jade, the 2006 Top SEA Performer, Pariag said the cost of books and medical equipment she will need when she goes into rotation at the various health institutions this year is very high. In addition, she said she pays a $2,400 monthly rent for Jade to stay close to the Mount Hope campus.
Ricardo Balkaran, a millwright with his wife and two daughters to support. He worries about his mortgage, and how he would survive with just one month’s salary coming. He said while he was not surprised by the termination, the lack of payment and severance had left him in disbelief.
Although the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) was having an emergency meeting yesterday afternoon to discuss possible action, Steel Workers Union president Christopher Henry said the Government must intervene, especially with legislation to protect citizens from foreign companies operating in T&T. He said the Government should mandate these companies to have unemployment insurance for instances like these.
He said ArcelorMittal made billions of dollars in T&T and as soon as times got hard they have bailed out on citizens.
Although part of ArcelorMittal’s problem was low steel prices driven down by an oversupply of cheap Chinese steel in the global market, recent international news showed that several Chinese steel mills are also on the verge of closure as they are unable to turn a profit. China took a decision to increase production as its economy contracted.
With the SWUTT eyeing a turnaround in the steel market, the union’s chief labour relations officer, Timothy Bailey, said they propose that Government take over the plant as there are many competent workers ready to work. He said over time, many employees had developed expertise in the industry.
“We are saying that over the passage of time we would have made experts, some of them retired. We think that we have the competent personnel in T&T to start up this plant, if that possibility arises, for us to run this plant locally,” he said.
“There are a lot of experts here in T&T and we have the workers who produced in the past and are willing to produce in the future.
“With the mixture of those two ingredients, we think that it is a possibility and if given the opportunity, we can make that plant a more productive entity.”
Bailey said cheap steel was being dumped in this country, which was bad for the construction industry. He said T&T needs to follow the US in banning “inferior steel”, so as to develop a profitable local market while exploring new ground in the Caribbean and US.