When Desiree Blackman, 32, of Embacadere, San Fernando, lost her job as an administration clerk at ArcelorMittal, her 70-year-old father, Horace, became the family’s sole breadwinner. And this is what is grieving her the most. “When I got the first lay-off in December, he took over all the responsibilities of the house.
“I always felt I had a responsibility to take care of my elderly father, not the other way around.
“Dad worked in the machine shop in Petrotrin and took great care of his six children when we were younger. I had plans to make life more comfortable for him as he got older. It hurts me to know I can’t help anymore.”
She lives in a Housing Development Corporation apartment at Embacadere with her father and a 17-year-old nephew, and pays a mortgage.
“We took over the responsibility for my nephew after his mom died two years ago.”
Blackman said losing her job has been devastating but she is determined not to give in to sorrow and to find another job as quickly as possible to relieve her father. She said Horace, who retired from Petrotrin as a machine shop worker, “is getting old.” They live on the top floor of the apartment building and there are a lot of stairs to climb up and down from their home which is becoming difficult for him, she said.
“My father is strong, but how long will he have strength? Already he is complaining about his knee, foot and back.”
Blackman said she was permanently employed at ArcelorMittal and had big plans to move her dad out of the apartment building in Embacadere into their own home.
“We have a piece of land in St Croix, Princes Town, and I was planning to start our own house eventually so dad will not have to climb any more stairs.”
Blackman’s most pressing concern right now, however, is finding a job, any job. I am thinking of setting up my own online business. But if I get a job for even $2,000 a month, I will put my pride aside and take it to help out. We have bills to pay, things to do. I am not giving up.”
In the meantime, she is also busy sourcing jobs for her former ArcelorMittal colleagues who were terminated and providing emotional support for them.
“Many are having a hard time. I know a single parent with kids who just finished building a house and has a big loan to pay.
“Another woman had a business while employed at ArcelorMittal but sold it to raise money for her sick child who needed surgery. She has nothing to fall back on now.”
“We have to encourage and support each other during this dark period,” Blackman, a shop steward with the Steel Workers Union, said.
“I tell them yesterday’s gone. This is something new and we must have hope. The company really took away a lot from us but we cannot carry our sorrow on and on.”
Blackman said several of her colleagues have already sent out resumes and are awaiting responses. The union has also been sourcing jobs for members, she said. After a second lay-off, Blackman and 600 other workers were finally terminated by the international steel giant last week due to reduced global demand for its products.
Recalling the day she was told she was terminated, she said, “The union was called to a meeting with company officials.
“We were previously told the meeting was to discuss the way forward and no one had any idea we were going to be terminated.
“They told us they were not appealing the court case we won and from that day they were terminating all the workers.
“I was shocked, hurt and disappointed. You plan your life around certain things. I cried many nights. I couldn’t eat, sleep for many days.” Blackman said she’s carrying her own burden as well as those of her colleagues.
“I wish I had a million dollars to give people to go home with.”
She called on “Trinidad and Tobago” to support workers who lost their jobs.
Asked if that included the Government, she replied, “Trinidad and Tobago. We have to be patriotic.”