Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al of the Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union (OW­TU) An­cel Ro­get is blam­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tri­cal Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) for the na­tion­wide black­out in Feb­ru­ary.

Speak­ing dur­ing a protest ac­tion out­side the Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­istry, Ro­get said that con­trac­tors were to blame for this in­ci­dent.

The union said this was one of the griev­ances raised with the Com­mis­sion and the Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les.

"Not too long ago that in­ci­dent that re­sult­ed in a na­tion­wide shut­down where a tree fell on the pow­er­line that is be­cause the Com­mis­sion is con­tract­ing out the jobs and the work­ers who are per­ma­nent to do the job was not al­lowed to do so be­cause the job was con­tract­ed and the tree was not able to main­tain hence it fell on the pow­er­line," Ro­get said.

"We are here to­day on the brink of some oth­er dis­as­ter that can hap­pen as a re­sult of T&TEC man­age­ment neg­li­gence and as a re­sult as we see now with the Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and all we want to do is to high­light it and let the pop­u­la­tion know," he added.

The Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al added that he has writ­ten Min­is­ter Gon­za­les more than four times for a meet­ing and that the union has not been ac­knowl­edged to deal with mat­ters of the work­ers at the Com­mis­sion.

OWTU President General Ancel Roger left lead T&Tec workers in a peaceful protest outside the Ministry of Public Utilities, Alexander Street Port-of-Spain yesterday.

KERWIN PIERRE

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