PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The powerful Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) Tuesday prevented its members from unloading a ship from West Africa saying that the state-owned oil company, PETROTIN, had not formulated any protocols to deal with the deadly Ebola virus that has killed nearly 5,000 people in West Africa.

But Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan said that the union was over reacting and that the ship ‘Overseas Yellowstone’ had been cleared to dock at port of Pointe-a-Pierre, south of here.

“Unlike clearance processes that occurred when a vessel that had visited Ghana was docked in Chaguaramas recently, PETROTRIN has called in ‘scab labour’ to help dock the vessel at Pointe-a-Pierre.

“In light of the heightened global Ebola threat, regular port workers have refused to dock the vessel unless PETROTRIN applies the proper procedures and protocols,” the Khan said.

Ghana is not among the five West African countries from where passengers have been banned from entering Trinidad and Tobago, but OWTU president general Ancil Roget told a news conference it matters not, given the fact that the ships normally would use people from other countries.

“Therefore any threat or any exposure to the Ebola virus would put at risk not only the employee, but the home, family, community and therefore it is in the national interest…that we call on the company to put in place the necessary protocols in the interest of the workers at Point-a-Pierre.

Roget said that given the fact that the ship had been at other ports, it is possible that someone could be carrying the virus for which there is no known cure.

But Khan said the OWTU is playing games because it is fully aware of the tests that had been conducted on the vessel.

“The ship has been fully cleared medically. There is absolutely no reason to invoke OSHA or anything. It is just delaying tactics by the union,” he said, adding that “at the end of the day, the ministry has done its duty [and] there is nothing to worry about”.