Regular gas will be back if the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union has their way.
OWTU president general Ancel Roget made the comment yesterday, moments after the union met with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at his St Clair office yesterday to discuss their bid for the Petrotrin refinery and other issues which have arisen following its closure on November 30.
Following the meeting, Roget said should the union gain control of the facility they would supply all fuels, including Regular gas.
“All those persons who will be suffering for Regular, which is not a reality again after today. Once the OWTU acquired and owns the refinery we will be bringing back the production of the Regular gasoline,” Roget said.
Minister of Energy Franklin Khan announced in the Senate on Tuesday that Regular gas will no longer be imported as it was no longer feasible to do so.
Regular gas has been used mainly by fishermen, with many of them saying a switch to Super gas will raise their expenses by 400 per cent and this increase will have to be passed on to the customers.
Yesterday, Roget said the OWTU believes it can provide fuel to the local market should their bid for the refinery be given the go-ahead by the Government.
He explained, however, that while the union was in talks to purchase the refinery they will not be running the facility.
“That will come not with the union operating it, the union has established a separate company to acquire and to operate those assets. We made the point that we will be producing or guarantee to produce fuel for the local market, including the Regular gasoline that which is, today we heard, is no longer made (for) purchase,” Roget said.
“We did say to the Prime Minister that we are ready. We have the financiers, we have the supplier of crude.
“We also have the technical people to support us in the management of the refinery assets and so on.”
The possible acquisition of the Petrotrin refinery and other assets were part of their two and a half hour talks with the PM, Roget said.
He said they should get further feedback on their proposals in about two weeks.
The issue of the former casual and temporary Petrotrin workers not receiving any severance payment was also discussed yesterday with the PM and his delegation. Many workers who fall under this category had decades of service with the company and the union argued that they too should receive packages.
“Those workers also contributed to Petrotrin’s development and therefore those workers should have, notwithstanding the fact that they are not permanent workers, they should have received some sort of severance,” said Roget, who noted the issue of the pension and medical plan was also discussed.
“We got no guarantee on any of those issues here this afternoon, except of course a mention was made about the casual and temporary workers that they will receive their backpay,” he said.
He said they were told workers should receive their backpay, which is supposed to be exempt from taxes, by the middle of January.