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Two strikes in the Colombian coal mining sector broke out recently, giving 3,000 miners of unaffiliated Sintramienergética a loud voice to express disapproval over working conditions in this resource-rich sector of the South American country. 
A strike by 1,000 miners broke out at Swiss-owned Glencore International’s Carbones La Jagua operations in Jagua de Ibirico, Cesar state, on 17 May, and one numbering 2,000 miners started on 22 May at US-based Drummond Coal’s LaLoma mines in Cesar, and spread to the company’s transport and export terminal operations in Cienaga and Santa Marta. 
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The Drummond strike centers on subcontractors. The privately-held US company refuses to extend collective bargaining rights to thousands of contract workers, mostly at the transport and terminal sites. Sintramienergética is insisting for these jobs to be made permanent, with full social rights as well as the necessary health care benefits both on and off the job. 
 
Wages are also a major issue with both companies, since coal’s high prices and the rich value of Colombian’s high-grade resource in America and Europe has left miners short-changed. Miners’ demands also include significant investment, particularly by Glencore, on environmental projects, and for both companies to begin providing medical assistance to communities that have been adversely affected by the mining enterprises. 
 
Columbia’s national labour center, Central Unitaria de Trabajores (CUT), has warned that company security units have made the strike scenes extremely volatile, and has called for constructive dialogue from both the national government and the two companies. CUT, saying the two strikes are lawful, said the companies refused to find solutions to the union’s demands over the past two months, and that the demands have the overwhelming support of the miners. 
Glencore recently sold its 33% share in another rich coal mining and export operation in eastern Colombia, Carbones del Cerrejón, to Xstrata, a global mining house in which Glencore owns a 15% stake.

Colombia’s Coal Industry Hit with Two Strikes

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In what the Chinese work-safety director is calling the worst coal mine disaster of 2006, 56 miners were trapped and killed by flooding at the Xinjing Coal Mine, Shanxi Province. Miners told managers to cease mining due to rising water levels six days before the 18 May mass flooding, but were ordered to continue mining. 
 
To make matters worse, local safety officials had attempted to cover up the extent of the disaster when it happened by stating only five miners were trapped. After two days, a State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) investigation discovered 56 were trapped. Nine managers are under arrest, while the owner of the licensed mine is reported to have fled. In addition, six others were arrested in connection to the disaster, including two bankers as well as the person charged with work safety, who stands accused of leading the cover-up. 
Also on 18 May, near Beijing, a coal mine collapsed in Fangshan District, killing five miners. The mine is owned by Jingmei Coal, part of the Beijing Coal Group. These two mid-May tragedies follow a fierce explosion that occurred at the Wayaobao Coal Mine in Shaanxi Province on 29 April. It killed 32. 
 
Fatalities occurred in other Chinese mining sectors as well over the past month. On 13 May, at last three were confirmed dead after the Dalongshan Iron Mine collapsed in Anhui Province. On April 30, in an effort to heighten production, the Zhen’an County Gold Mining Co., raised water levels on a dam, which then burst and killed 17 villagers. That incident happened in Shaanxi Province.

Coal, Iron, Gold Disasters Kill Scores in China’s Mines

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN N° 16

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Bargaining in the US tyre industry began on 9 June when the United Steelworkers (USW) kicked off talks when Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and America’s largest industrial union exchanged proposals in Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
USW also begins talks with Michelin’s North American subsidiary BF Goodrich this month, and bargaining with Bridgestone/Firestone begins on 14 June. The three companies represent the largest of the tyre firms which comprise the master rubber agreement in the US. The union represents some 17,000 Goodyear employees, 6,000 Bridgestone workers, and 4,000 at Michelin.
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USW is expected to select one of the three as the “target” company, in which it hopes to achieve a pattern contract that will be taken to the others. Current three-year contracts in the US tyre industry expire on 22 July.

US Tyre Talks Begin for 27,000 Workers

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ICEM Costa Rican affiliate Sindicato de Trabajadores Petroleros, Químicos y Afines (SITRAPEQUIA) has criticised the government of Dr Oscar Arias Sánchez for continuing rhetoric favouring privatisation of state oil company RECOPE. 
In a 15 June circular, the union points out that the company has operated effectively and efficiently since it was nationalised in 1974, a fact that finds other Central American governments attempting to replicate such management. 
 
“We don’t understand how our government can pretend to imitate the way these Central American governments have operated, meaning handing this important activity into the hands of multinational oil companies,” the statement read. 
SITRAPEQUIA’s strong rebuke comes as Arias is using political measures to ratify the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the US, an agreement which could lead to the sell-off of successful and highly-profitable state companies. The Costa Rican president made such overtures before an ILO audience in Geneva, Switzerland, on 7 June. 
<img height="28" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CostaRicaSITRAPEQUIA(1).jpg" width="250" alt=""/>
The union contends RECOPE has fulfilled its role on national development over the past decades, and that the oil company can serve to reduce poverty and as a means toward better redistribution of wealth. It also says that privatisation proposals of basic industries have consistently failed at the legislative level due to legitimate rejection by the public. 
 
SITRAPEQUIA union members massed with other Costa Rican trade unions affiliated to national centre Confederación de Trabajadores Rerum Novarum (CTRN) in a march and demonstration in the capital city of San Jose. 
The 7 June mass demonstration, numbering 10,000, was over both Arias’s intended remarks at the ILO, as well as over a constitutional court ruling that weakens union protections for public sector workers, an adjustment in accordance with CAFTA.

SITRAPEQUIA Out to Protect State-run, Costa Rican Oil Company

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ICEM affiliate in Germany, IGBCE, has taken deep exception to a report published by a research institute that all energy supplies be left to market forces.
The RWI, an economic research think tank supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the state of North Rhine/Westphalia, proposes that all state subsidies for coal and other energy sources be removed.
<img height="62" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GermanyFlag.gif" width="100"/>
“Those who claim that energy supplies are not the state’s responsibility and should be left to markets, have lost all sense of reality,” said IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt. He added that the risks associated with an energy crisis is the concern of the entire Germany economy, stating that it is easy for those “in an ivory tower that is 80% funded by public monies” to preach such free market ideas. 
 
The IGBCE believes German policy for safe and secure energy supply cannot be left alone to markets.

IGBCE Disputes Research Institute’s Energy Supply Thesis

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The ICEM teamed with NOPEF, Norway’s dominant oil workers’ union, to bring a set of highly successful workshops to women of Palestine’s General Union of Petroleum, Mining and Chemicals Workers' Union. The Palestinian workshops occurred last month, 10-12 June, in neighboring Jordan.
Contents
 <a href="#pal">1. Palestine – ICEM and NOPEF Hold Women’s Training Session</a> 
<a href="#2">2. Botswana – ICEM African Women’s Committee Meeting</a> 
<a href="#coun">3. Council of Europe – Inequality Has a Price</a>  
<a href="#3">4. Jordan – Women Workers are Discriminated Against</a>  
<a href="#4">5. Kuwait – Women Vote for the First Time</a> 
<a href="#5">6. Nepal – Third National Women’s Conference Demands More Women’s Representation</a> 
<a href="#6">7. Pakistan – Working Women Organization Protests Against 18th Century Laws in the 21st Century</a> 
<a href="#res">From our Readers</a> 
<a href="#8">8. Switzerland – Women Demand Equal Pay for Equal Work</a> 
<a href="#9">9. United Kingdom – Black Women are in Low Paid and Low-status Jobs</a> 
<a href="#10">10. United States – Goodyear Discriminates Against Women</a> 
<a href="#11">11. ILO: New Forms of Violence at Work Are on the Rise Worldwide</a> 
<a href="#12">12. Resources</a>
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1. Palestine – ICEM and NOPEF Hold Women’s Training Session  
 
From 10-12 June 2006, the ICEM organised training for women women workers who are members of the General Union of Petroleum, Mining and Chemicals Workers' Union of Palestine in Amman, Jordan.
The course provided training on women’s health as well as collective bargaining. The aim is to develop women’s leadership in the union. The point was mostly to understand how gender affects men and women differently in all areas of life, from privatization to health issues. 
 
Turid Øygard from NOPEF made a presentation on women in Norway and their roles in unions and working life. She also led group work on democracy in trade unions. 
 
The women concluded that they needed more self-confidence and self-esteem. The intifada has influenced women. But women are able to fight and should be accepted as fighters. As a next step, the women seek to create more awareness among men on the role they are capable of fulfilling. 
<img height="230" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0606CBJordan2.jpg" width="350"/>
<a href="#back">Back Up</a> 
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2. Botswana – ICEM African Women’s Committee Meeting 
The highlights of the meeting included the election of Baru Gaithoboge as vice-chair of the ICEM’s African Regional Women’s Committee. Baru’s election will boost the representation of African women at ICEM events. Congratulations to Baru. 
The women reported that the general secretaries in Namibia and Zimbabwe were still resistant to forming joint ICEM women’s structures. 
In Nigeria, the affiliated unions held a women’s meeting in 2005 and are planning to hold another one in 2006. Ghana has embarked upon community development by training mineworkers’ wives. 
Fabian Nkomo, project coordinator for the shop steward development programme in Africa, reported on the project in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania. He said the project was supposed to increase the level of activity targeted toward women. Thus women would be enlisted to strengthen unions, not least of all in connection with dues payments. 
Thanks to Oluchi Okorie from NUPENG in Nigeria for providing this report! 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
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3. Council of Europe – Inequality Has a Price <a name="coun"></a>
The Sixth European Ministerial Conference on Equality between Women and Men was held in Stockholm on 8-9 June 2006. The conference focused on the economic advantages that equality entails. 
According to the Swedish equality minister, economies in the most equal societies have higher growth rates. The highest cost to society is generated by domestic violence. 
Spanish figures show that violence toward women costs Spain €2.4 billion a year, which entails hospital costs, psychological assistance, legal costs and work absenteeism. 
In Finland, inequality is estimated to cost €17.4 per person. In the UK, inequality is estimated to cost each person up to €555 per year in terms of health costs and social costs. UK authorities have calculated that if women participated in the labour market there to the same extent as men, the government would take in between €22 billion and €34.5 billion euros more per year. 
In Sweden, the argument is that women continue working after the birth of their children, which in turn yields more tax income to the government. This allows further investment in childcare, thus allowing more Swedish women to enter the workforce. In Sweden, 40% of women, however, work part-time, and that brings a dramatic effect to their pensions. With women on average living longer than men, they have less money available to them in retirement. 
For more information, see <a href="http://www.coe.int/equality-conference">www.coe.int/equality-conference</a>. 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
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4. Jordan – Women Workers are Discriminated Against
In Jordan, women workers are discriminated against and are often paid below the legal minimum wage, even with the recent increase in the minimum wage. 
The government increased the monthly minimum wage to US$142 in May to help defray higher costs of living due to higher fuel prices. Some women were earning only US$60 before the wage increase for working 10 to 12 hour days, and may continue to not be paid the full legal wage. 
This is due to the fact that women are “reluctant to file lawsuits against employers for fear of retaliation,” and also because of inadequate implementation of labour laws, according to the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions. 
Over 200,000 Jordanians in the workforce are women, the majority of whom come from impoverished families. Unemployment is almost 15%, and one-fifth of the 5.5 million people living in Jordan live below the poverty line.
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
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5. Kuwait – Women Vote for the First Time 
Kuwait’s first parliamentary elections in which women could vote were a victory for political reformists but a disappointment for female candidates, none of whom won a seat to the governing body. In total, 27 women ran in the recent elections. Women had won the right to vote and run for office last year. 
Female votes accounted for 57% of the electorate. Women turned out in large numbers to vote for the first time. Before women won the right to vote, members of Parliament had resisted granting them suffrage with the argument that it contradicted Islam. This year’s elections were seen to be crucial, as they affected reforms and economic development programmes. 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
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6. Nepal – Third National Women’s Conference Demands More Women’s Representation 
Nepal’s Parliament adopted a declaration setting the minimum for women’s participation at 33% at all levels. Now the question is to implement this standard. 
At the Third National Women’s Conference, the representative of the All Nepal Women’s Association presented a road map for women’s participation. The other thematic issues had to do with the changes in laws to prevent discrimination. 
GEFONT Deputy General Secretary and ICEM Vice President Binda Pandey presented a comparative analysis on programmes, achievements and challenges between the Second and Third National Women Workers’ Conferences. Altogether, 616 women from the rank and file attended this most recent conference. The conference outcomes will be used to develop policy. 
 
Women in Nepal earn NPR 80, while men earn NPR 100-150 (NPR 100 = US$ 1.36). The rates have been frozen for ten years. Men are said to be stronger, work harder and produce more, which is why it is possible to pay women less. 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
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7. Pakistan – Working Women Organization Protests Against 18th Century Laws in the 21st Century 
On 23 June, thousands of workers took to the streets all over Pakistan to protest against the amendments in labour laws that set minimum working time of 12 hour per day, and exclude piece rate workers from overtime payment. 
The Working Women Organization staged agitation and expressed their anger about workers’ poor conditions, shameful amendments to the laws and the violation of ILO standards. The changes in labour law will enable employers to exploit workers even more, and especially women workers who already have irregular work, long working hours, dangerous working conditions, very low wages and no right of organization. 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
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From our Readers: 
 
Jumana Jodi Dreraghmi from the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions writes that she is now using the methods she learned in the course. She divides people up into groups and everyone gives their views. She is preparing a meeting on 7 July to share what she learned from the Amman workshops with other Palestinian women. 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
<img height="25" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="20"/>
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8. Switzerland – Women Demand Equal Pay for Equal Work 
 
Women in Switzerland called for the wage gap to be closed between women and men ten years after the equal opportunities law first came into force. The nationwide campaign is distributing cards shaped like 50-franc notes, which are depicted as being worth only CHF39, thus representing the reality of the workplace. 
Unia, an ICEM affiliate and the country’s largest trade union, marked the campaign by calling on those in the retail sector to pay their female employees more. According to a study, women receive 12.7% less than their male colleagues, amounting annually to CHF1 billion. 
Unia reports that discrimination is also rampant in businesses that employ more than 2,500 employees. In 2004, women earned on average CHF4,781 gross per month, whereas the figure for men was CHF5,953, amounting to a difference of 19.7%. In 2002, that difference was 20.7%. 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
<img height="25" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="20"/><a name="9"></a>
9. United Kingdom – Black Women are in Low Paid and Low-status Jobs 
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) of the UK released a report entitled Black Women and Employment, which was originally presented at the Black Workers’ Conference in 2006. The report looks at the barriers black women face to gaining employment and then progressing in their jobs. 
The government, according to the report, must take initiatives to combat race and sex discrimination in employment. Facts reveal that black and minority ethnic women are more likely to be unemployed or economically inactive than any other group in the labour market. 
Black and minority ethnic women suffer from cultural stereotyping by employers that result in them having to take jobs at lower skills levels than match their qualifications. Also, black and minority ethnic women are disproportionately likely to be working in temporary jobs. 
The TUC believes that there is a need for concerted and coordinated action by government and trade unions through collective bargaining to eliminate race and sex discrimination in the labour market and in society, through legislative and community-based initiatives. 
The organisation and recruitment of black women is vital if future progress is to be made in addressing the problems that black women face in the workplace, and in encouraging increased participation in the trade union movement. 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
<img height="25" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="20"/><a name="10"></a>
10. United States – Goodyear Discriminates Against Women 
The US Labor Department has sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., alleging hiring discrimination against hundreds of women who sought jobs in the late 1990s. The lawsuit seeks to force Goodyear to hire, pay back wages, and provide retroactive seniority and other benefits to the women who were denied employment. 
In 1998 and 1999, Goodyear followed a “hiring process and selection procedures that discriminated against hundreds of female applicants for entry-level positions on the basis of gender,” said the Labor Department in a statement. A spokesperson for Goodyear denied the charges and claims that Goodyear is working to resolve the matter. 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
<img height="25" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="20"/><a name="11"></a>
11. ILO: New Forms of Violence at Work Are on the Rise Worldwide 
Violence at work, ranging from bullying and mobbing, to threats to psychologically unstable co-workers, sexual harassment and homicide, is increasing worldwide and has reached epidemic levels in some countries. This is according to the ILO study, Violence at Work, Third Edition. 
The global cost of workplace violence is enormous and costs untold millions of dollars in losses due to absenteeism and sick leave, among other causes. It also notes that professions that used to be sheltered from workplace violence such as teaching, social services, library services and health care are being exposed to increasing acts of violence in both developed and developing countries. 
Bullying, harassment, mobbing and similar behaviour can be just as damaging as outright physical violence, according to the report. 
Today, the instability of many types of jobs places huge pressures on workplaces, leading to more such violence. In developing countries, the most vulnerable workers include women, migrants and children, according to the report. 
In Malaysia, 11,851 rape and molestation cases at workplaces were reported between 1997 and mid-2001. Widespread sexual harassment and abuse were major concerns in South Africa, Ukraine, Kuwait and Hong Kong, states the report. 
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>
<img height="25" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="20"/><a name="12"></a>
12. Resources: 
See <a href="http://www.payscale.com/">www.payscale.com</a> to compare your salary. 
 
ILO study on “Decent Working Time: New Trends, New Issues,” available at 
<a href="http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2006/28.htm">www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/ 
2006/28.htm</a> 
 
ILO study on “Changing Patterns in the World of Work,” available at 
<a href="http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc95/reports.htm">www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ 
ilc95/reports.htm</a>
<a href="#back">Back Up</a>

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN N° 13

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Oil fields workers’ in southern Chad launched a three-day strike against Esso-Tchad, US-based ExxonMobil’s operating unit there, over wage discrimination and neglect over implementation of a career development plan by the oil and gas supermajor. Oil workers in Chad are also upset that the money produced through their labours is not reflected in their socioeconomic standing. 
 
The strike by over 400 workers lasted from 4 to 6 July in the Doba oil fields of Kome, Miandoum, and Bolobo. Oil workers served notice that future strikes would occur, possibly production of the 200,000 barrel-a-day output sent through the three-year-old Chad-Cameroon pipeline, unless workers’ demands are met. The strike was caused by Esso-Tchad when it placed an inferior pay offer before the workers a day before the walkout began. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMOil.JPG" width="100"/>
Management offered a pay increase of only 7.5%, while workers are seeking 25% in order to bring pay levels closer to oil workers on the transit side of the upstream development in Cameroon. Chad’s national labour centre, Union des Syndicats de Tchad (UST), is assisting oil workers in talks. 
 
In March, the union representing the workers issued demands in the form of a statement that called out the unequal pay practices between oil workers in Chad and Cameroon, and charged that a phantom “career progression plan had never been seen by the Chadian personnel, who continue to receive a salary that is not equivalent to the services rendered or the socioeconomic situation.” Esso-Tchad made no response to those demands. 
 
The Doba fields, connected to the Cameroon port of Kribi by a 1,063-kilometre pipeline, belong to a consortium of oil companies, with ExxonMobil holding 40%, Malaysia’s Petronas 35%, and US-based Chevron a 25% stake. The World Bank-funded development project became mired in controversy when, in January 2006, Chad’s government changed the bank’s financial arrangements, and diverted monies away from poverty relief and social programmes to counter civil strife, leading to a mass of refugees entering eastern Chad from the Sudan. 
 
With a stalemate brought by the World Bank’s dispute with Chad’s government, ExxonMobil decided to stop royalty payments to the government of Chad, worth some US$20 million per month, which further choked resources in one of the world’s poorest countries. 
 
The World Bank-sponsored Chad-Cameroon pipeline has been plagued by other labour and human rights problems as well. In September 2005, Chad’s national gendarmerie broke up peaceful protests by contract workers who had been denied overtime pay while employed by Chad-Cameroon Constructors, the oil companies’ consortium building the pipeline. The police action left three dead and three seriously injured.

Chad’s Oil Workers Target ExxonMobil for Strike Action

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Nigeria’s two oil workers’ unions, PENGASSAN and NUPENG, suspended a three-day warning strike after day two on 14 September. The unions received assurances from the government and its oil ministry that security concerns along the Niger Delta and other grievances would be addressed. 
 
The assurances included establishing a commission to investigate the kidnapping and death last month of PENGASSAN member Nelson Ujeya, who was killed in a hail of gunfire by a military task force as he was about to be released. 
 
Meeting in a joint National Executive Committee (NEC) session on 14 September in Abuja, leaders of the two unions requested that 20,000 Nigerian oil and gas workers return to their jobs the following day after government officials promised earnest dialogue to find lasting solutions to security matters and other concerns. The first such discussion forum will be held 21 September. 
<img height="124" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaNupeng.gif" width="120"/>       <img height="113" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassan.JPG" width="107"/>
The strike on 13 and 14 September caused domestic disruptions as fuel depots shut, petrol stations closed, and fuel tanker lorries stayed off roads. Oil marketing companies in Lagos, Abuja, Warri, and Port Harcourt all stopped business. The strike also hampered oil and gas exploration and production facilities, although some offshore oil production and crude exports were allowed to continue. 
 
Besides the concerns over security, in which the government has failed to provide a safe and peaceful work environment, PENGASSAN and NUPENG seeks an honest and transparent process on the privatisation of state-owned assets. They cite the recent sale of the Eleme Petro Chemical Ltd. (EPCL) refinery in Port Harcourt and how the facility was under-valued and sold to a start-up company with little experience in the petrochemical business. (In meetings with Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, on 13 September, the NEC did receive a commitment for work guarantees for all current staff of EPCL.) 
<img height="50" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaFlag.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Other demands of the two ICEM-affiliated unions include social commitments that jobs and skills development will occur in the country’s oil patch for young Nigerians. They also demand strict adherence to past agreements made by energy companies and the government on expatriate quotas in the oil, gas, and related industries. The unions also object to merging the Petroleum Training Institute into the University of Benin. 
 
PENGASSAN and NUPENG demands must now be met or further and longer strikes will occur in the immediate future. The short warning strike last week achieved the unions’ objective to gain the government’s attention to the serious security concerns that oil and gas workers in Nigeria face.

Nigerian Warning Strike Succeeds in Grabbing Government’s Attention

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Despite a compromised wage proposal by the union, ICEM affiliate Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) and Trinidad and Tobago’s state oil company, Petrotrin, are no closer to an agreement on a new three-year contract, dating from 2005 to 2008. 
 
The two sides, however, with assistance from the Labour Ministry, continued intense negotiations through last week. 
 
Some 1,500 OWTU members at the company’s lone refinery carried out another wave of industrial actions in the nine-month dispute, staging short work stoppages on 7 and 8 September. The action effectively shut production at the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery, and was the fourth such industrial action taken by OWTU members at the refinery since last March. 
<img height="93" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TrinindadOWTU.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
On 5 September, refinery workers marched on Petrotrin’s main offices in Pointe-a-Pierre. They were joined by many of the 3,500 other members employed at Petrotrin, who also await updated labour agreements. 
 
In bargaining in early September, OWTU lowered its wage demands from 32% over three years, but Petrotrin has not moved upward from its 10% proposal. OWTU is attempting to negotiate fair and equitable settlements in five labour agreements, covering 5,000 workers. 
 
The credit ratings agency Moody’s, meanwhile, has placed Petrotrin’s foreign currency issue rating under review for possible downgrade due to the labour dispute. The review will “assess the company’s operations and debt servicing capabilities in light of its current labour unrest and the highly uncertain dynamics of labour negotiations,” said Moody’s in a statement. Roughly a quarter of refined output from the former Texaco refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre is for domestic use, with the remainder exported to eastern Caribbean islands, South America, and the east coast of the US.

Dispute in Trinidad and Tobago’s Oil Industry Continues

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