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Steel­work­ers gath­ered out­side the closed Arcelor­Mit­tal Point Lisas fa­cil­i­ty on Wednes­day night, hold­ing a can­dle­light vig­il to mark ten years since the shut­down of the steel plant that once stood as a cor­ner­stone of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s heavy in­dus­tri­al sec­tor. The union al­so re­newed calls for jus­tice for the hun­dreds of work­ers dis­placed when the plant closed.

Pres­i­dent of the Steel Work­ers Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SWUTT), Tim­o­thy Bai­ley, told work­ers and sup­port­ers the an­niver­sary was a painful re­minder of what he de­scribed as the un­just ter­mi­na­tion of em­ploy­ees when the com­pa­ny ceased op­er­a­tions in 2016.

“To­day marks ten years since that ill-fat­ed day when the com­pa­ny ter­mi­nat­ed the ser­vices of each and every sin­gle met­al em­ploy­ee,” Bai­ley said dur­ing the vig­il.