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  • 1 year ago
President of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union Michael Annisette is questioning the continued closure of the Container Examination Services at the Port of Port of Spain.

Annisette signals a possibility of it being politically motivated, as the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union is sub-contracted in those operations.

Alicia Boucher has more in this report.





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Transcript
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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