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CCNTV6
  • 1 year ago
The Transport Minister says the high level of absenteesim at the Port of Port of Spain for the past two days has caused that port to lose out on increased cargo traffic to this country.

The Minister says major shipping carriers are now offloading more cargo at the Point Lisas port, as thousands of dock workers are now on strike in the United States.

Juhel Browne reports.
Transcript
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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