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Nine years of waiting and still no relief! Former workers of Arslan Metal are still fighting for compensation after the company's liquidation. The Steelworkers' Union is pleading with the government to intervene and provide justice for workers who dedicated their lives to building the company.

The union is calling for legislative changes to ensure workers receive their separation benefits, especially those injured on the job. Concerns are rising around the handling of the company's assets and the outstanding payments to workers. The union insists that any new entity restarting the industry must fully compensate the workers.

#WorkersRights #TrinidadAndTobago #SteelIndustry #UnionStrong
Transcript
00:00If the Keith Rowley administration was serious about people, they would have looked into the someday one.
00:06This liquidation was a sham.
00:08They went into a voluntary liquidation process and left people on the breadline, over 2,000 workers on the breadline, and the government did nothing.
00:18Nine years of hoping, praying and fighting for compensation,
00:22and former workers of the steel company Arslan Metal are yet to get a dollar, says President of the Steelworkers' Union, Timothy Bailey.
00:31Speaking to reporters following an annual meeting held by the liquidators on Thursday,
00:36Bailey said there is still no sign of relief and pleaded with the new government to intervene.
00:42I am calling on the new government because the last government didn't care.
00:45I am calling on the new government who are saying that they are compassionate and who are saying that everybody wins.
00:55I am saying this is an ideal situation for your intervention.
00:59Whatever legislative changes need to be made so that your citizens could benefit after putting 36 years of their life on the line for that entity
01:08and building that metal empire, do the necessary.
01:11He says following Thursday's meeting, they were left no closer to answers or a solution.
01:18Our members, some of them here today, have been injured, sacrificing their bodies to the metal group.
01:26I am saying it is unfair that a justification could be made that you have not received as a liquidator the entire amount,
01:35which is $30 million, and you could hand over the plant to Titi Iron and Steel.
01:39If that is the case, you are supposed to hand over the plant to me and my members.
01:43Our members' separation benefit last time we checked was in the region of $30-something million U.S. dollars.
01:53While there is a matter before the industrial court involving retrenched workers,
01:58a few former workers who were injured on the job and won matters in court years ago
02:03are separately still owed millions of dollars.
02:07We have no problem with an entity coming and restarting the industry in Trinidad and Tobago,
02:12but they must buy the facility outright, they must buy the facility giving the liquidator who is passing here
02:21the $30 million that they have said they are going to gift him so that the liquidation process can come to him.
02:28Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:31Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:33Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:34Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:35Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:36Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:37Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:38Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:39Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:40Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:41Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:42Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:43Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:44Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
02:45Cindy Raguba, TV6 News.
02:46Cindy Raguba, TV6 News.
02:47Cindy Raguba, TV6 News.
02:48Cindy Raguba, TV6 News.
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