On Wednes­day, SWW­TU leader Michael An­nisette said the union nev­er au­tho­rised any­one to sign the de­c­la­ra­tion on be­half of his union. This prompt­ed an im­me­di­ate re­sponse by the leader of the OW­TU, An­cel Ro­get, who, ac­cord­ing to the me­dia, was "sur­prised."

Ear­li­er this week I read a let­ter to the ed­i­tor by a mem­ber of the OW­TU call­ing on Ro­get to ex­plain his al­le­giance to the leader of the PNM and the let­ter went on to state that Ro­get's re­sponse to the bud­get and to the Gov­ern­ment is now pre­dictable. I want to do com­mend An­nisette for his prin­ci­pled stance against the ac­tions of the oth­er trade unions in at­ten­dance at the meet­ing held with Dr Row­ley.

An­nisette is a known crit­ic of the Gov­ern­ment and has stood against in­jus­tices when­ev­er and wher­ev­er he sees it. He has demon­strat­ed by his de­c­la­ra­tion that he is not an easy pawn for any­one, even his own com­rades in the trade union move­ment.

Ro­get could learn a lot from An­nisette and would do well to take a les­son in lead­er­ship from him rather than fol­low Dr Row­ley in­to dis­grace.

David Le­gendre

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