00:00The high level of absenteeism by employees at the Port of Port of Spain, as confirmed
00:05by Transport Minister Huran Sinanan and the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union,
00:10has occurred as unions reportedly representing some 45,000 dock workers in the United States
00:18have gone on strike.
00:19This is in addition to what is being called the Red Sea Crisis, arising out of attacks
00:24on cargo ships being blamed on Houthis in Yemen.
00:28TV6 News spoke with Minister Sinanan about this via telephone in the context of the upcoming
00:34Diwali and Christmas shopping seasons in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:38So what assurances can the Minister give to local shoppers?
00:42The problem there is really the international shipping that is affecting the U.S. basically.
00:52We have the opportunity to capitalize on some of that as a matter of fact, as we do have
00:57two ports that handle international cargo in Trinidad and ships are offloading at Point
01:03Lysas.
01:04I mean, Point Lysas has a challenge now for some space because of what is happening in
01:09the U.S.
01:10A lot of the bigger carriers are now coming down and offloading cargo here in Trinidad.
01:17The Transport Minister then made a direct reference to the Port of Port of Spain.
01:21It's unfortunate that the Port of Port of Spain, because of the two days that some of
01:30the employees didn't feel to come to work, it's unfortunate that the Port of Port of
01:34Spain couldn't be there to take advantage of some of that extra cargo that can be transhipped
01:41through the Port of Port of Spain.
01:44But it is something that we will deal with.
01:46We do have two ports, if one port, some of the employees fall sick or for whatever reason
01:52didn't decide to come to work today, then we can divert ships to the other port.
01:59The Port of Port of Spain is managed by the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago and
02:03Port Point Lysas is managed by the Point Lysas Industrial Port Development Corporation Limited.
02:11Jule Brown, TV6 News.
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