00:00Complaints about the closure of the container examination services at a Port of Port of Spain,
00:05commonly referred to as CES, has, according to reports, been closed for around two to three months.
00:11The Chagones Chamber of Industry and Commerce stated weeks ago that it is costing customers more
00:16as their containers remain on the port longer, increasing their detention and haulage fees.
00:22President of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union, Michael Anassat,
00:26addressed the issue on Wednesday, pointing to politics being behind the closure.
00:56Trying to give us pressure.
01:00That's in reference to the SWWTU's ongoing industrial war with dock workers
01:06against the Port Authority and the government,
01:08which has led to serious intermittent disruptions in the operations at the port.
01:13Anassat tells TV6 News that the union is contracted by the government to provide labour to the CES.
01:20It's an agreement that came about under the company, Board of Maritime Services Limited,
01:25which at one point the SWWTU held shares in, but sold.
01:29He calls it a sledgehammer against the union,
01:32as he states that the CES was supposed to be fumigated and reopened.
01:36There's a man above, and God don't like ugly.
01:41He don't like ugly.
01:43Right, so all you can keep this station open and closed, right?
01:48All you can send all kind of support, because I don't know how the hundreds of workers
01:53who work in there must suffer because all they have a political agenda.
01:58Anassat believes citizens are being undermined and advantaged,
02:02but he says the union will not be intimidated.
02:06Because when you reach in a society that people could tell you,
02:10and he said, boy, but you ain't frightened.
02:12What he's saying, because you know they have a government contract and they're going to take it away.
02:16So be it.
02:18If there's a price for being right and standing up for the truth, so be it.
02:25You cannot compromise your manhood or your womanhood on the altar of expediency of monies.
02:33Let them know we're not going to do that.
02:36The CES falls under the Customs Division of the Ministry of Finance,
02:39headed by the Comptroller of Customs.
02:42TV6 News contacted the Comptroller via an email we were provided with by Customs,
02:47inquiring about the reason for the extended CES closure
02:51and requesting a response to Anassat's claims of politics being involved,
02:56as well as a response to an allegation made by the Chagones Chamber previously
03:01that port customers are sometimes paying the overtime of customs officers
03:05in order to get their containers cleared.
03:08We are awaiting a response.
03:10Meanwhile, the joint chambers comprising AmCham, the Energy Chamber,
03:14the TNT Chamber of Industry and Commerce,
03:16and the TNT Manufacturers Association on Wednesday
03:20called for urgent government action in whatever way is necessary
03:23to bring about a resolution to the impasse at the port.
03:27It said it is the citizens who will be severely impacted by a failure to do so.
03:32The joint chambers expressed a view that there is a lack of affirmative action,
03:37which it said is, quote,
03:39leading to a national crisis at a most inopportune time of the year
03:44when the volume of shipments is typically at its highest
03:47and makes it imperative that a port operates efficiently, end quote.
03:52Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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