PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The powerful Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) has warned that Trinidad and Tobago could face a crippling fuel shortage if the State-owned oil company PETROTRIN refuses to deal with a number of management failures.

“We have been trying to tell PETROTRIN’s management to take proactive action to ensure that the contractor resolves these issues, but they took a hands-off approach and that meant, for the union, seeking justice for the workers and that is to withhold their labour,” OWTU President General Ancel Roget said, warning that industrial action that began on Thursday at several PETROTRIN facilities, could spread in the coming days.

He said the workers are “well within the law to withhold their labour at this point in the negotiations to ensure that a settlement is reached and they have 90 days to do that.

“In fact, we wish to warn that that would spread throughout the company’s operations because you cannot have a management doing what they want, doing like the last management, in some sort of cosy arrangement with the contractor. We intend to serve strike notice on PETROTRIN also and shut the company down until we get proper management in place,” he added.

Hundreds of workers from several producing fields have been off their jobs since Thursday, along with employees of the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery where petroleum products, like kerosene, gasoline, diesel, and aviation jet fuel are produced.

The PETROTRIN bond, where fuel is distributed, remained operational on Thursday but Roget said that the company’s fuel storage supplies may last only two days and warned that customers would feel the pinch of a fuel shortage by the weekend.

In a statement, PETROTRIN warned that the action could seriously affect its future viability.

“PETROTRIN’s continued efforts to maintain production and meet its financial and operational obligations to its employees and its shareholder are being hindered by the strike action taken by the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) against Inland Offshore Contractors Limited (IOCL), one of the main contractors providing marine transport to PETROTRIN’s Trinmar Operations,” the company said.

It said that the strike action was based on a breakdown of negotiations between IOCL and the OWTU, which included conciliatory sessions at the Ministry of Labour.

“This strike is causing serious disruptions to our operations even beyond our TRINMAR operations and can have major effects on our workers’ ability to access our marine installations in order to meet our production and maintenance objectives .

“Reliable and efficient transport is critical to ensuring our effectiveness in servicing our offshore installations,” PETROTRIN said, adding that “unplanned disruptions, whether from employees or service providers, are therefore totally unacceptable”.

The company said that the situation was being monitored with contingency measures implemented to limit the negative impact of these disruptions.

“At this critical juncture, as PETROTRIN’s  operations are subjected to intense scrutiny from stakeholders including our insurers, bondholders, credit rating agencies and the shareholder, among others, any approach other than to maximise operations presents a serious threat to our future as a sustainable entity,” the company noted .

PETROTRIN also said that the protest is also the first wave of action meant to highlight the company’s lack of concern for security following the death of Curtis Pierre who jumped into a PETROTRIN tank and died on October 8.

Roget said that the company was attempting to cover up the suicide.

 “This is a massive cover-up. If they do the investigation in a proper way, you will find the company is liable for the breach in security arrangements,” Roget said, noting that the company had downsized security by 50 per cent in some areas, making workers vulnerable to saboteurs, robbers and other criminals.