Foreign investors have offered a pay-off plan in “one shot” to cover the TT$11.65 billion debt at the Petroleum Company of T&T (Petrotrin).
This was the “big” announcement Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget made at the culmination rally of its “Mother of all Marches” at the Brian Lara Promenade, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
He said although the proposal which the union presented to the Petrotrin board was rejected by the board and subsequently by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, it was accepted and deemed viable by “their financiers.”
“Not just our financial consultants…our financial experts…our financiers have put together the type of finance that will take Petrotrin forward,” Roget said.
He added that both bonds of US$850 million and US$250 million will also be paid off “in one shot.”
“We have people to pay that in ‘one shot’…the remaining $250 million, which they said will mature in 2020. They (referring to the financiers) are willing to pay that too before 2020. Even the other loans of $7 million, they are willing to pay that in ‘one shot,’” Roget said.
“Those foreign investors see the value in the Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago…they see a lot of values in the proposals that we have put forward.”
Roget, on hearing news of dismissal letters being handed out by Petrotrin to workers yesterday despite the pending judgment to be delivered by the Industrial Court on Monday, said the Government is “breaking the law.”
He said he was told dismissal letters will also be distributed to workers via postal workers over this weekend and advised them not to accept the letters until Monday’s judgment.
Earlier this week, the OWTU, through attorney Douglas Mendez, SC, filed an injunction seeking to prevent Petrotrin from sending home workers.
Yesterday’s protest march began just outside the Petrotrin refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre on Wednesday before stopping off at Rienzi Complex, Couva, moving to Aranjuez, San Juan on Thursday and ending at the Brian Lara Promenade yesterday.
By yesterday at about 11 am, the protest march numbers had grown to an estimated 10,000.
Roget declared that the time was now ripe for them to continue their action.
“We are going to win this battle…Comrades, we are prepared, for the OWTU would have now risen to the occasion,” Roget said.