The Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), backed by the majority of the trade union movement, last night entered a “war room” to discuss its next move on the future of Petrotrin, after Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley reiterated his position that the refinery will be shut down.
This was the outcome of an almost three-hour long meeting yesterday between OWTU’s president general Ancel Roget, union leaders and Rowley at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair, to discuss the closure of Petrotrin’s refinery among other issues.
The meeting was held after National Trade Union Centre president Watson Duke delivered a letter to Rowley on Monday asking for an urgent meeting with him on Petrotrin.
Yesterday, Roget summed up the meeting as “not productive. And yet for another time, we saw where decisions were made really leaving out the people that counts. That is a worrying signal.”
Another worrying signal, Roget said, was the “arrogant” posturing by Rowley and his Government, noting he was not open for dialogue to come to an amicable decision.
“They seem to believe that they will be there forever. We have a different belief. The Government is perhaps bankrupt of ideas, so they cannot see that they are blindsided and beyond the horizon of the doom and gloom they continue to preach every day,” Roget told the media and union members afterwards.
Roget said four issues were discussed with the PM, among them outstanding negotiations that were stalled, the non-implementation of settled negotiations and non-payment of arrears and retrenchment at Petrotrin.
When the issue of Petrotrin arose, Roget said they mentioned the April 3, 2018, Memorandum of Agreement registered with the Ministry of Labour that the Government had signed off on to start the restructuring of Petrotrin and for talks to be held between the OWTU and Petrotrin’s board.
Roget said Petrotrin’s board had departed from that approach and went to Cabinet and came back with a decision to shut down the refinery, which they objected to because the OWTU had no opportunity to have a say, which they felt was wrong.
“And it was done in bad faith to agree on an approach and come back with something else. The Prime Minister is holding to the position that they should violate the agreement that we had. So they are going ahead,” Roget said.
Taking that into account, Roget said the workers will be sent home. He said Rowley insisted that he was not prepared to go back on his initial decision.
Roget made it clear the union was never against the restructuring of Petrotrin. He said when he questioned the PM on plans for the refinery, Roget said Rowley told him “that is tomorrow’s story.”
“We found that really to be unacceptable, and of course, it is disrespectful to the workers in the refinery. That tomorrow that he cannot tell today is one where somebody is going to buy it.”
Roget insisted the refinery will be purchased without terms and conditions to serve the interest of a few.
“The trade union movement has decided that on the basis of the refusal to halt the decision and go back to the MOA, that as we leave here we go and meet in emergency session to determine the next move and an announcement will be made. We are going to go in our war room and determine what is going to happen.”
The union leaders later gathered at SWWTU’s headquarters, Port-of-Spain, to discuss their next move. Roget said you cannot have a PM disregarding a process and then trivialising it “when that process will have dire consequences for workers.”
In due course, Roget said the OWTU will disclose its proposal on the restructuring of Petrotrin. He also warned, “We are not going to take this nonsense by Dr Rowley and his Cabinet ministers. All of them shaking their heads in agreement with what he is saying. All of them to us is nothing more than dashboard puppies for and behalf of a Prime Minister who they fear.”
Roget said today’s Rest and Reflection will be on more than ever, saying for three years Rowley administration had mismanaged the country.