WILLEMSTAD - According to the President of the UGTK/CADMU union, Wendell Meulen, the tanker owned by the state company Curoil can be used to transport crude oil from Venezuela to Curaçao. Meulens made this proposal seeing that the towing company KTK relies heavily on the refinery for its survival.

Last Saturday a KTK boat left with a crew of four to Trinidad and Tobago to work for six months. The union leader says that since day one of the crisis in the refinery, there has not been a ship in the harbor to provide work for KTK. This is the reason why other ventures, like the one in Trinidad and Tobago, were explored.

The union had to put pressure on the management of the company and Minister Dr. Steven Martina to look for projects elsewhere. Initially there were talks about laying off, employees, but the union says it cannot accept that. “Everything must be done, including finding work somewhere else, to save our jobs,” says Wendell Meulens.