As the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) entered its final round of conciliation talks with Petrotrin yesterday, president general Ancel Roget warned of a major political fallout for the Government if there was no change to the 0-0-0 salary adjustment being offered.
The OWTU entered the Ministry of Labour's San Fernando office with the strike notice already in hand. If there is no agreement, the union will be marching to the company's Pointe-a-Pierre office this morning to serve the company with a 90-day strike notice. Once served, Petrotrin has until Sunday before some 4,500 workers officially walk off the job.
At a press conference at the OWTU's Paramount Building headquarters in San Fernando yesterday, Roget said the Government knew the former People's Partnership regime was penalising the union for standing up for the country, which benefited the People's National Movement (PNM). "It is unfair, it is unjust and it is immoral to continue on a wicked path set by Kamla Persad- Bissessar and if they continue with that, well, she paid a political price and that is where I will end on that," Roget warned.
He said it was interesting that Prime Minister Keith Rowley and Finance Minister Colm Imbert have chosen to remain silent on the wage matter. Reacting to Government spokesmen saying that Petrotrin acted without authority to begin negotiations with the union, Roget rubbished the statement, saying that the company was legally mandated to "meet and treat", otherwise they could face penalties from the Industrial Court.
Responding to a barrage of criticism from the Employers' Consultative Association, business chambers and former government ministers, Roget said many of them were only condemning the union because it would disadvantage them. He said when the union highlighted the mismanagement and corruption at Petrotrin, none of them bothered to intervene. He said the same way Government found money to pay public servants their 14 per cent increase, so can they find money for Petrotrin workers.
COST OVERRUNS BECAUSE OF WASTAGE–OWTU
Roget also said workers should not be blamed for Petrotrin's financial and asset integrity woes.
Producing company documents, he said it was because of failures by the company's management and successive governments to effectively implement the necessary work. He said these inefficiencies were costing the company $522 million annually.
He said Petrotrin purchases about 155,000 barrels per day in a mixture of local and foreign crude for the Point-a-Pierre refinery.
Local crude accounts for around 45,000 barrels. Therefore, if Petrotrin produces more local crude, it would import less. Production is critically low, but even if output increases, he said the storage capacity has been reduced by 65 per cent within the last three years because the eight tanks that were taken out of service for repairs have not been returned. As a result, the company pays millions in demurrage when tankers have to wait at the port. He said Petrotrin was wasting money by:
1. Award of large contracts. Eg Cleaning seven storage tanks for $24 million.
2. The delay of the Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel plant.
3. Hundreds of millions of dollars to contractors for equipment that the company already has.
4. Millions of dollars in golden handshakes to top company executives.
5. Paying four expatriates $18 million for three-year contracts to replace one refinery manager. He said Petrotrin's overtime bill last September was $8.7 million, which went up in October to $10.4 million. This was caused by manpower shortages in critical areas of the company
PETROTRIN: UNION BEING UNREASONABLE
With the 2011-2014 negotiating period before the Industrial Court, Petrotrin president Fitzroy Harewood said that should the company have to increase salaries by ten per cent, their wage bill will increase by $165 million at the end of the first period, with a pay-out of over $279 million in retroactive payments. It is the same increase the union is seeking for the period 2014-2017.
However, Roget said the company can afford the increases because several projects, including the World Gas To Liquids and the South West Soldado production facility, for which capital has been acquired, were yet to be completed.
He said the union also put forward a proposal to negotiate how Petrotrin can pay workers over a period of time.
"We are not telling Petrotrin to fork out or to find that retroactive payment. We can sit down and negotiate a way in which they would be paid over time. There are many different initiatives which we are willing to put on the table for how they are going to address the debt, but please sit down and quantify the debt in terms of the rate of increase the Petrotrin workers deserve and must get."