Current and former employees protested October 5 the non-payment of about US $11.8 million in bonuses owed to them for the last 16 years at ArcelorMittal's Point Lisas plant in Trinidad and Tobago. Protesters blocked the Point Lisas entrance gate just before 7:00 a.m. and called for ArcelorMittal to honor an Employees Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) agreement requiring the company to pay bonuses to workers based on their production output from 1994-2009.
President of the Steel Workers Union in Trinidad and Tobago, Lex Lovell, has said that an agreement in 1991 entitled the people of Trinidad and Tobago to a 40 percent shareholding, with five percent belonging to workers at the Point Lisas plant, and the company has refused to pay.
ArcelorMittal's managing director spoke out claiming he was unaware of the gravity of the situation.