KEVON FELMINE
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
It's been ten months since thousands of former Petrotrin workers began stressing over where their next paycheck would come from. But with Patriotic Energies and Technologies Co Ltd winning the bid to acquire the Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery, some are seeing a silver lining.
On Friday, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced that Patriotic, a company recently incorporated by the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) was the preferred bidder at US$700 million for the refinery. It was a victory that the OWTU celebrated with its president general Ancel Roget saying that every citizen will benefit. In a previous statement, Roget said the ex Petrotrin employees would be given preference for positions when the company starts. Former workers, who were among the 4,700 terminated when the gates were shut on November 30 see hope for their livelihoods and the country’s coffers. Some remain sceptical whether the OWTU will be able to make the refinery profitable again. These are some of the ex-employees' reaction.
Lyndon McClashie
And, so it starts! The negative, uninformed, biased opinions. Yes the OWTU was awarded the refinery with a US$700 million bid. Payments and interest to start in three years time. It simply means that they have three years to get the refinery up, running and profitable. If you know anything about the OWTU, it’s that they are the most resilient, determined organisation. I see nothing but success in this venture. When you’ve been part of building something from the ground up, you appreciate what it means, how it works and get a keen sense of what it needs to be successful.
Had it not been for hapless management and repeated government meddling in the affairs of the refinery and the wider Petrotrin over the years, and if they had adopted some of the recommendations of the same said union over the years, Petrotrin would have remained profitable for the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Notice I said, “remained”. Had it not been for the debt saddled on the company by those failed ventures, a different story might have been unfolding now. But who knows, what we do know is that now labour holds the reins of its own destiny in the oil and gas sector. Now it's up to the Patriots to show just how they will manage our patrimony. Sugar gone, rice gone, steel gone, let’s make sure oil and gas are here to stay! God bless the OWTU and Trinidad and Tobago.
Shankar Teelucksingh
I am more or less pleased that a local company was selected. In addition, the OWTU was always saying it had the best option to run the refinery. The main thing is a local company was given the option. We always had the capabilities in terms of our people who were fired for reasons unknown to us up to now. Now that the OWTU was given the option I’m sure 90 per cent of employees who worked at the refinery should be given an option to contribute back to the national economy. There was no reason why the company should have been shut down in the first place with the recommendations from the union.
The Government never gave the option, based on the "Lashley report" they just shut down. If we were given the opportunity, the company would have been profitable. Petrotrin was profitable before and it can still be profitable under a stringent management process. Definitely, it will benefit the country, starting from the lowest end. I think we can get a more reliable supply of fuel which we will have from a refinery. The fishermen could get back their "Regular" or a cheaper source of fuel.
Nicholas Edwards
I think there is uncertainty because men like myself, we don’t know where we stand. I will hope that would not be a second Petrotrin because really and truly, I don’t think the citizens of T&T understand that former Petrotrin workers cannot experience a second term of failure. These people might take their lives because with the fall of Petrotrin many like myself were heartbroken. In shock and distraught by being unable to pay bills, especially the casual workforce. If people go back, the question will be whether it will work out or in the next five or ten year you hear that Patriotic Energies is bankrupt and closes down again. It will be a traumatic shutdown.
The OWTU kept saying that first preference will be given to people who applied already and to ex-employees. But then, later on, Roget said he will help those who supported the union during its time. I believe he is referring to people who paid union fees and had gone to previous meetings. However, I believe they said they have a foreign investor and my opinion is if a white man is running a company, he will want the best and he will ensure proper procedures will be followed. In the past, Trintoc was run by white people and it had its own current, water, land, farms and other things. They were self-sufficient but when the black man took over, all that came to an end. Their focus was only the oil boom and making money, and everything achieved under the white man came to an end.
Keisha Dyer
The first thing I felt was relief and hope and secondly, a sense of pride that a company owned by the OWTU was able to accomplish this goal of not only eventually employing thousands of retrenched workers but also being able to bring such great capital investment into Trinidad & Tobago. Just think about what that money can do for citizens. I believe wholeheartedly that the company can and will be turned around and that the company will realise profits like it has never seen before. As for benefiting the country's coffers, I think with an investment of US 700 million we are off to a great start.
Kalifa Phillip
I feel the acquisition is long overdue and well deserved. I'm not sure what the true value of the refinery is but it seems like they paid too much since the Government described it as "a black hole" and as "scrap iron." Yes, I feel the company can be turned around, but it's not the same business as it was before as both an upstream and downstream company. You can't compare. I do know the OWTU has over 80 years of experience in this industry and is very capable of turning the refinery around. The oil business has been benefiting the country's coffers since we took it back from foreigners in the late 60s. This will continue under Patriotic.
Patrice Valentine
I am very ecstatic that the OWTU won the bid for the refinery fair and square. A lot of work went into that technically sound proposal, so I was very confident that it could not be beaten. In terms of turning it around to make it profitable, that part has me a bit confused. Petrotrin was always making a profit, but it suffered because of gross mismanagement. With the company now being owned by Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Ltd, I expect even greater profitability because the extremely competent workforce will be giving their best and all the corruption and mismanagement that was highlighted by the OWTU over the years but ignored by successive governments will finally be addressed. I see brighter days ahead for Trinidad & Tobago.
Carla James
The OWTU’s main objective is to protect the employees and seek the best interest for them. However, my experience at Petrotrin, I think they were more focused on negotiation from a monetary standpoint. I believe that in order for them to be successful going forward, there needs to be a shift in the cultural paradigm. It’s not just about 'oh, we want more money and if we don’t get more money we will down tools’. They have to get to that point of professionalism where they’re seeking not only the employees' interest but the company’s interest and working hand in hand. Too many times it was a case of OWTU’s way or no way and that can’t work going forward, at least not in this century.