Ex-Carlisle Workers Protest in Trinidad

Former employees of a Trinidad & Tobago based tyre factory acquired by Carlisle Tire & Rubber in 1995 have protested over severance money owed to them for more than a dozen years. Earlier this year the country’s Industrial Court ordered Carlisle, who took over the assets of the Caribbean Tyre Company, to pay more than TTD$10.6 million (£854,000) in outstanding benefits, with a payment deadline of February 23. To date Carlisle has not complied with the court’s ruling.

The workers involved in the current protest were employed by the Caribbean Tyre Company Ltd, who made them redundant in 1995. The company paid 70 per cent of the workers’ severance with the promise that Carlisle would re-employ all of them. Carlisle closed down operations in Trinidad & Tobago in September 2003, allegedly after workers began protesting working conditions and outstanding wages. About 400 employees lost their jobs during the closure.

The recent protests have taken place in front of the Port Fortin and Port of Spain offices of the Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad), shareholders in the Dunlop tyre factory in operation prior to the Carlisle acquisition. The chosen venues for the protest are puzzling, however, as Colonial Life Insurance’s relationship with the tyremaker ended in 1995 and court records confirm that the firm is not party to any current court action regarding unpaid benefits. A spokesperson for the life insurance company stated that while they understood the frustrations of the former Carlisle workers regarding their severance payment claim, Colonial Life Insurance “has no ownership, shareholding or business relationship with the Carlisle Tire and Rubber Company.”