By Chantalé Fletcher
MARCHING and clapping, former employees of the once-popular ice cream brand, Flavorite Food Ltd, and union representatives of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) staged a protest for outstanding salaries on Wednesday morning.
With placards in hand, they chanted, “We want we money now. We want we money right now.” They were outside one of Flavorite’s owners’ establishments on Herbert Street, Port of Spain.
First Vice President of OWTU Ricky Benny said the owner of Flavorite must stop holding workers to ransom.
He said workers worked tirelessly and toiled for years to produce the brand Flavorite, which was once, “a high-end ice cream in T&T.”
Benny said now they have to gather to enquire when they would be paid for their services rendered.
He said, “It is unfortunate that in this day and age, no member of the Employers Consultative Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ECA), the business community or government is talking about the plight of these workers.
Benny said, “The owner continues to live richly on the backs of comrades. He would have owed NIS payments, salaries, basic benefits and only promising they will be reemployed and discussions to go forward.”
Benny also called on the “powers that be” to intervene and bring a solution to all workers.
He called on the owners in serious discussions with the OWTU to solve workers’ issues, as many workers remain on the breadline.
Workers calculate and prepare the financial sheets. They must have known that the NIS and other payments were not being paid.
Why wait until the company is closed to complain?