Trinidad & Tobago’s state oil firm Petrotrin has been hit by strike action after conciliation talks broke down between the government and representatives of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), according to the island nation’s Daily Express newspaper.
The action shut down the Point a Pierre refinery, stopping production from both offshore and onshore fields.
Workers want pay increases of 10% after having none in four years. They also want the company president Fitzroy Harewood, to be fired, alleging mismanagement.
But the company says it cannot afford any pay rises for the 5,000-strong workforce because of the precarious state of the industry.
Petrotrin’s offshore and onshore production totals 45,000 per day.
