Petrotrin retirees protest new medical plan

SEVERAL retirees of the defunct state-owned oil company Petrotrin on Thursday held a noisy protest in front of the main administration building to decry the “inferior" health plan put in place for them.

The plan replaces the comprehensive medical plan available to them before the refinery was closed last year.

The former workers stood in front of the administration building for over two hours, protesting noisily to express their concerns.

They said they have been treated unfairly by the government and are now fed up and frustrated.

Curtis Huggins, 63, said, “Enough is enough. We must let our voices be heard and something must be done because we cannot go on like this surviving on this medical plan. This is madness.”

He said Petrotrin workers had been dealt a great injustice and would no longer remain silent.

"We plan to protest throughout the country until we get answers. We have given our youth to the refinery and we are now old and not well.”

Huggins said the new medical plan had a limit of $5,000, which covered them for two years. That amount, the retirees said, is not enough to buy medicine or pay for any operations needed.

“We are forced to borrow money from our families to see about our health, when this should have not been. We have invested years into a secure and proper medical plan that was supposed to be in place until we died. Now that plan is no more,” Huggins said.

In the past, he said, any sick employee could go to the Petrotrin Hospital, but it is now closed.

Another former employee, Lincoln Ramlochan, 61, said, unlike the previous medical plan, the new one had a lot of restrictions and did not cover dental or optical care.

“This plan is only for two years and on November 30, 2020, it would be up. What is going to happen after to all of us?” Ramlochan asked.

Ashton Kennedy, 64, said he had worked for Petrotrin for 45 years.

“At night I can’t sleep I think of all the years I invested in the refinery and how much work I put in, and now to end up like this is really heartbreaking for me.”

The protest was organised by the Polygraph Committee, which consists of a number of UNC activists.