Ancel Roget on privatisation: Five per cent strike action is kid’s play

Ancel Roget, president general of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), has defended what appears to be constant battles between his union and the management of state-owned Petrotrin, insisting that the OWTU has not been bullying Petrotrin’s management and impeding the company’s progress. With the threat of strike action looming and allegations from past and present managers that the union makes it difficult to make decisions based on pure business necessities, Roget is dismissing those claims. In an interview last December with the Business Guardian, former Petrotrin executive chairman Malcolm Jones insisted that the OWTU made Petrotrin almost ungovernable, which was one of the company’s greatest challenges. 

 

Jones, who had an acrimonious relationship with the union, said the OWTU’s constant threats to stop work and unwillingness to co-operate left the company with a disadvantage that was not suffered by the other operators in T&T. In an interview on Saturday, Roget hit back accusing Jones of mismanaging the company. Roget said: “It was not the OWTU that told the management that they should embark of the World GTL project that was such an abysmal failure and which, if the company had spent the same money on exploration and production, they would have had more crude to run the refinery.” Roget admitted there had been constant battles between his company and successive boards and management, but said had it not been for the workers, the company would not have made $2.2 billion in profit during the last fiscal year. He said there are some of those who were prepared to argue for workers getting a five per cent increase in salary when they know that workers have suffered an erosion in their real incomes because of inflation.

 

Petrotrin board sources told the Business Guardian they have tried to engage the union and explain that it was in the company’s best interests to bring in private investors in the company to increase its efficiency. A source told BG: “We feel this is a learning exercise. We have been trying to explain to the union on the exploration and production side of the business we need some financial and technical help. We have a shortage of reservoir engineers, of geologists and more technical skills. We need the assistance and there are different ways that this can be done. We realise that the union is coming from a different perspective because they fought to get rid of Texaco and they see any private involvement is going back, but it is not so.”

 

Company’s viability

Roget is adamant that there will not be any private involvement in the operations of Petrotrin including Trinmar. “If you feel that this fight for an increase in salary is anything, let them come with attempts to bring in private involvement, you will see. We know the vampires and the vultures and we will not allow them to privatise the company. Workers know it’s one thing to fight for a higher salary, but it’s another thing to fight for your job. So let them come with that foolishness and this will look like kid’s play.”

Asked specifically is the OWTU is obstructionist, Roget said the OWTU has proposed several measures at making the company more viable. “We have done our job. But there are certain people who want to take control of the company. We did not mismanage the company and we are not going to allow the company to fall into the hands of a few greedy men and women.” The OWTU served strike notice on Petrotrin on Tuesday.