TCL restarts operations with skeleton staff

Using a skeleton staff of strike breakers and managers, Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) has restarted the factory and resumed the production of cement.

This is despite an almost three-week strike by all but a few of the company’s 600 workers who have refused a 6.5 per cent increase in salaries.

TCL’s production manager, Keith Ramjitsingh, said the plant was running on “mill and roller press mode” and did not require a large number of workers. He said in six hours, 370 tonnes of bulk cement was produced on Thursday.

Bulk cement is used by ready-mix and concrete block companies. The company took media workers on a tour of the Claxton Bay plant on Friday.

Ramjitsingh said: “The good news about that is, that is one of the highest production numbers per hour we have ever gotten on the roller press since this plant was commissioned (five years ago). That was an excellent effort on the people who ran the plant yesterday.”

Ramjitsingh said on a normal eight-hour shift the plant produces 480 tonnes of cement.

Ramjitsingh said the plant would eventually run on a two-shift system, producing up to 6,000 tonnes of cement a week.