By FELICIA RAMPERSAD Thursday, May 28 2009

FOR the second consecutive day, the gates of Alutrint’s Aluminium Smelter Complex construction site at Union Estate in La Brea were blocked yesterday by angry residents who demanded job opportunites on the project.

The protesting residents alleged that Chinese labourers were being hired for the project over the unemployed locals.

A woman complained that she saw foreigners working on the construction site of the smelter plant.

“Look is better I go back home and take care of my children. I do not believe I’m not going to get any work at all. We were told that the residents would be given first preference for jobs on the site, but that is not the case,” the angry woman shouted.

Resident Wendell Superville said that more Chinese labourers were being hired on the project and the ratio of foreign labour to local labour was too wide. “We could do everything that the Chinese could do and we can do it better. For every Chinese labourer hired, a local should be hired,” Superville said.

Alutrint communications manager Josie-Ann Richards yesterday promised to speak with the residents to see how best the issue could be dealt with.