Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

A ca­bal op­er­at­ing with­in the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment is out to snatch pow­er from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar by giv­ing her an­ti-labour ad­vice to low­er her pop­u­lar­i­ty, Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union's (OW­TU) pres­i­dent An­cel Ro­get claimed yes­ter­day.His com­ments came as the labour move­ment con­tin­ued to mo­bilise work­ers in the count­down to a na­tion­al strike.Ro­get, who ad­dressed scores of sup­port­ers at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, in the heart of the Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion's (PSA) ter­ri­to­ry, said it was a shame the union's pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke had be­come a mouth­piece of the Gov­ern­ment.As sup­port­ers pound­ed dust­bins and buck­ets and sang union songs, Ro­get warned Per­sad-Bisses­sar to be­ware of those who were once her po­lit­i­cal foes.He said: "If the Prime Min­is­ter choos­es that ca­bal against the sides of work­ing peo­ple whose blood sweat and tears and en­er­gies turn the wheels of the econ­o­my, I think she will be set­ting her­self up for a fall.

"The Prime Min­is­ter's pop­u­lar­i­ty is drop­ping. What the ca­bal is do­ing is they are giv­ing her bad ad­vice. They want her pop­u­lar­i­ty to drop right down and then they will come in."Ro­get told Per­sad-Bisses­sar she must nev­er for­get how the labour move­ment con­tributed to her rise in pow­er.He added: "Re­mem­ber Prime Min­is­ter that in the days of the PNM we were the ones who were walk­ing the streets."Ro­get, who called work­ers across the coun­try to du­ty, said the labour strug­gle had gone way past the fight for re­moval of a five per cent wage cap.

He said: "This has reached far. Work­ers are so vex it is an is­sue of prin­ci­ple now. It is not just a five per cent wage cap any­more."This fight has to do with sur­vival of the work­ers. It has to do with us com­ing back and fight­ing for the work­ers. It has to do with coun­try. It seems they want to mash up the labour move­ment."He said Per­sad-Bisses­sar must dis­re­gard the ad­vice of the ca­bal and con­tin­ue to walk with the labour unions as she once did.He al­so vowed that all 19 labour unions would con­tin­ue to raise the con­scious­ness of the work­ers and teach the Gov­ern­ment a les­son about the pow­er of the work­ing class.