THE financial woes that have been plaguing Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) for some time reached fever pitch yesterday when the plant closed indefinitely as a result of industrial action taken by the company’s workers.

The protest action that began on Wednesday afternoon continued into yesterday afternoon and threatened to curtail the two-day programme of racing scheduled for today and tomorrow at the St Catherine Racing Complex.

A meeting was hastily called between UTASP — the union representing the workers — and the Ministry of Finance in an attempt defuse the situation which would allow the workers to return to their respective work stations today in time to prepare for the first day of the two-day racing carnival at the venue.

However, up to press time, no sign of a resolution was in sight from a meeting which was scheduled to begin at 2:00 pm yesterday.

Furhter, deputy racing secretary at CTL, Kingsley Gentles, expressed doubt that a resolution was quickly forthcoming.

Workers complain that several issues have forced them to take industrial action, chief among them being the shortage of capital to meet the day-to-day CTL’s routine expenses such as paying its staff on time, paying trainers on time and paying its betting dividends on time.

At the gathering in front of the Caymanas Complex yesterday, it was mooted that the workers were not the only ones being affected by the state of the financial condition of CTL, but also the punters.

The view was also expressed that while CTL appeared not to have money to pay its staff and personnel directly involved in ensuring that racing takes place, money was being found to honour certain other contractual arrangements with CTL.

Also brought to light was a situation where a trainer’s cheque for the modest sum of $6,000 ‘bounced’ when tendered at a financial institution.

Owners and trainers who are footing the bill to keep racing going at Caymanas Park and are feeling the economic pinch, in a meeting with the directors of the CTL Board yesterday at the Trainers’ Room, stated that government’s reluctance to implement a 10 per cent tax on bookmakers to help shore-up the ailing finances for using the CTL local signal clearly shows that the government, which is the owner of the racing complex, has no interest in racing.

This, they say, results in the situation where trainers are feeling the economic pinch while the bookmakers are raking in the bucks.