Young: Nutrien closure could have been avoided

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

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For­mer prime min­is­ter and en­er­gy min­is­ter Stu­art Young says Nu­trien’s de­ci­sion to close its Trinidad op­er­a­tions was un­nec­es­sary, ar­gu­ing that an arrange­ment could have been reached to keep the Point Lisas plant op­er­at­ing while al­low­ing both Nu­trien and the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) to re­main prof­itable.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Young said: “This is an un­nec­es­sary clo­sure as it is pos­si­ble to find what is called a ‘sweet spot’ where both NGC and Nu­trien would be able to make mon­ey and to have con­tin­ued plant op­er­a­tions and gas sales at a prof­it.”

Nu­trien an­nounced the clo­sure of its Trinidad Ni­tro­gen op­er­a­tions fol­low­ing a re­view of its op­tions amid con­tin­ued un­cer­tain­ty over the sup­ply and cost of nat­ur­al gas. Young re­ject­ed the sug­ges­tion that the clo­sure was linked to con­cerns about the wider fi­nan­cial con­se­quences for the State.

“This loss and clo­sure was not due to the like­li­hood of sink­ing the Trea­sury and a sov­er­eign down­grade with all its con­se­quences,” Young said.

But Young said his im­me­di­ate con­cern was the im­pact on work­ers and their fam­i­lies, ar­gu­ing that the con­se­quences would ex­tend far be­yond the Point Lisas plant. He said the im­pact of job loss­es would be felt in­side house­holds, where fam­i­lies would have to re­assess how they meet their fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions.

“It means a par­ent or par­ents sit­ting at the kitchen ta­ble, try­ing to work out how they will meet next month’s com­mit­ments. It means some­one won­der­ing how to pay the mort­gage, keep a child in school, or pro­vide med­ica­tion for an age­ing par­ent.”

He said the eco­nom­ic fall­out would al­so reach con­trac­tors, trans­port op­er­a­tors, food ven­dors and small sup­pli­ers that de­pend on the in­dus­tri­al sec­tor.

“They reach the con­trac­tor wait­ing for the next main­te­nance job; the dri­ver trans­port­ing work­ers; the food ven­dor prepar­ing meals be­fore sun­rise; the small sup­pli­er who em­ploys a hand­ful of peo­ple and de­pends on reg­u­lar busi­ness from the es­tate.”

The Nu­trien clo­sure comes against a back­drop of oth­er dis­rup­tions in T&T’s petro­chem­i­cal sec­tor.

“We have al­ready ex­pe­ri­enced the clo­sure of Yara’s whol­ly owned am­mo­nia plant and the idling of Methanex’s op­er­a­tions. With job loss­es ex­pect­ed to come at Pro­man next.”

He said work­ers at oth­er plants would now be con­cerned about the se­cu­ri­ty of their own jobs.

“Work­ers at oth­er plants will un­der­stand­ably be ask­ing: ‘Could we be next?’

“They de­serve a se­ri­ous an­swer.”

Young called for Gov­ern­ment, Nu­trien, work­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives and rel­e­vant agen­cies to ur­gent­ly de­vel­op a plan to as­sist af­fect­ed work­ers and busi­ness­es.

“Work­ers need time­ly in­for­ma­tion about their em­ploy­ment, their en­ti­tle­ments and the tran­si­tion ahead.”

He al­so called for ef­forts to find a new op­er­a­tor or restart the fa­cil­i­ties.

“Any ef­fort to se­cure a new op­er­a­tor or restart the fa­cil­i­ties should be pur­sued with de­ter­mi­na­tion and re­port­ed hon­est­ly.”

Young said the coun­try must al­so seek to re­tain the skills of work­ers in the en­er­gy sec­tor.

“Our en­gi­neers, tech­ni­cians, op­er­a­tors and skilled trades­peo­ple rep­re­sent decades of na­tion­al in­vest­ment and ex­pe­ri­ence. We must make every ef­fort to re­tain their ca­pa­bil­i­ties and cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for them here at home.”

He said the loss of a job should not be treat­ed as a per­son­al fail­ure.

“No work­er should be made to feel that the loss of a job is a per­son­al fail­ure.”