Many of us, like former minister, Mariano Brown, feel that the Government dropped the ball when they caved in and awarded an interim five per cent wage increase to Petrotrin workers.
In failing to bite the bullet, we lost a golden opportunity to set the tone for industrial relations and fiscal rejuvenation of our economy. Instead, we are collectively looking down the barrel of a gun and might as well learn a lesson from our Venezuelan neighbours and stock up on toilet paper and loose dinero.
The stage was set for a 90-day saving of the approximately $2 million daily subsidy by tax payers to the oil company–say two hundred million. We must remember that most countries function well without any petroleum resources.
By sheer attrition, all the goals espoused by the PM in his last address to the nation on this topic would have been automatically realised.
Has the OWTU learnt the ISPATT lesson?
On the humane side, the workers should have been offered equity participation in the said company which handsomely looked after their needs over the years.
I can understand now why Americans chose the strong-willed Donald Trump.
Can we retrieve the situation? I doubt.
Alton Daniel,
Maracas Royal Road