(Trinidad Guardian) Desperate because they are unable to pay home mortgages and vehicle loans, over 100 former ArcelorMittal employees overpowered security guards as they stormed the Point Lisas plant yesterday, demanding answers about their pension and savings plan.
The sun was barely up when the company’s internal security officers and Allied Security Ltd guards rushed to stop the incensed former workers and the Steel Workers Union of Trinidad and Tobago (SWUTT) from entering the compound.
Superior in numbers, the former workers forced open the unlocked gates, leading to the officers retreating to their stations to call for help.
The union came prepared though, with locks and chains, and they ensured the Central Division Task Force officers, who responded in two vehicles, could not enter. Only three additional security officers from the Point Lisas Industrial Development Estate Company’s (Plipdeco) Tactical Response Unit were able to enter through the pedestrian gate before it too was locked.
However, all those officers did was stand to the back of the workers, who congregated at the entrance and sang union songs, some even embracing some of the company’s security officers who were offered a month’s contract for the liquidation period.
Other vehicles attempting to enter the plant were turned away.
Allied Security Ltd officers who were expected to change shift at 7 am were also left stranded inside the compound while their relief waited outside.
SWUTT’s second vice-president Ramkumar Narinesingh told the Guardian that they came to get a meeting with ArcelorMittal’s management over the status of the pension and savings plans. He said based on the information they obtained, it seemed that there was a deficit in the company’s contribution to the pension plan at Republic Bank—the trustee of the pension plan.
“We would contribute six per cent of our weekly salary towards the plan and the company would match that. The actuary said it should have been raised to 12 per cent in order to remain viable in 2014 and to 23.7 per cent in 2015. However, it appeared that the company kept it at six per cent.”
Last week, union officials met with Republic Bank representatives to discuss the status of the pension plan.
“We are trying to get our money now because once they liquidate the plant and wind up everything, our pension would be lost,” Narinesingh said.
As for those already receiving pension, he said those payments are supposed to be converted into an annuity by the trustee. Former workers also used the opportunity to collect their payslips for the period ending March 11, the day the company terminated 644 workers.
The workers were retrenched by the steel manufacturing company after it closed its operations in February citing poor sales and mounting debt.
They were upset that the company still deducted contributions to their pension and savings plan. Another reason the workers were desperate to get their pension and savings payment before the liquidation is complete was that at least 70 of them have home mortgages while 300 others have vehicle payments.
One worker said he has already defaulted on his car loan while another has to use his Kia Optima sedan, which sells at approximately $340,000, as a PH taxi.
Narinesingh said, “A lot of men and women are just home doing nothing. We were under pressure until we got last month’s pay so we could purchase some groceries. When this pay finishes next month, that is when the real pressure starts and we will start to lose our homes and vehicles.”
Finance Minister Colm Imbert has said the Government had no intention of buying the plant as it would have to compete with cheap Chinese steel flooding the market and a $3 billion debt incurred by the company.
Union representatives said they intend to be present at today’s creditors’ meeting called by ArcelorMittal at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain.
The meeting takes place the same day as a job expo at the National Energy Skills Centre, Rivulet Road, Couva, hosted by the National Employment Service of the Ministry of Labour to help displaced workers find alternative employment.
The workers remained on the plant late yesterday even as Ministry of Labour officials intervened to organise a meeting between the trustees of the pension plan, Republic Bank; the trustees of the savings plan, the Unit Trust Corporation; and the union at its head office, Tower C, Waterfront Centre, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.
