Gas station workers essential and need to be vaccinated too – says Petroleum Dealers’ Assoc.

With the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) conducting their own vaccination drive today at the Divali Nagar site and the Supermarkets Association set to kick their own vaccination programme off come Tuesday at Centre Point Mall, the Petroleum Dealers’ Association is now asking ‘what about us?’

President of the Petroleum Dealers’ Association Robin Naraynsingh, is now calling on the Government to provide vaccines for its workers as they too are essential workers.

Naraynsingh, in an interview with GML, said “The gas station workers are also essential workers. I am sure that the Government would give them priority. We had reached out to our line minister, the Energy Minister, Stuart Young. He has not acknowledged our letter. I believe that he has got some vaccines for some of the energy sector, but he never reached out to us.”

There are approximately 150 gas stations in T&T and Naraynsingh said “Each gas station employs at least six people. The country needs fuel, the police, the health sector. These are not frontline workers, but they are essential workers. Most gas station workers are poor and underprivileged working for the minimum wage. You cannot disenfranchise them from the function that they do for society. These workers do yeoman service for the country and yet others are given priority over them.”