TCL to close packaging division in February

FIFTY more workers may be put on the breadline, as Trinidad Cement Ltd has given notice of its intention to permanently close its packaging division – TCL Packaging Ltd (TPL).

Chief labour relations officerof the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) Lyndon Mendoza confirmed the closure is scheduled for February 15.

He said the union was informed of this development in a letter from the company on January 21. TCL has also invited the union to a meeting to discuss the closure.

Earlier this month, the company advised the union of the retrenchment of 12 workers, in spite of talks which had been going on since September last year. At that time Mendoza condemned the action as “union-busting.”

TPL was established in 1989 by TCL, which the government bought in July 1976 from the British firm Rugby Portland.

Rugby Portland first established the plant in 1954.