RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al of the Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union (OW­TU), An­cel Ro­get, has con­firmed that labour’s dis­cus­sions with the UNC are pro­gress­ing well.

At a press con­fer­ence on Fri­day, Ro­get re­newed calls to re­move the PNM gov­ern­ment.

“Evil con­tin­ues to thrive when good men and women re­main silent,” he re­mind­ed sup­port­ers as he stood out­side the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery, ad­dress­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s al­leged bias in the re­fin­ery ac­qui­si­tion process.

When asked whether the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) had made an of­fi­cial al­liance with the UNC, Ro­get re­spond­ed, “I don’t know about form­ing an al­liance, but I am hap­py to say dis­cus­sions have be­gun.

“In the full­ness of time, we will let the coun­try know what those agree­ments are. I am al­so hap­py to say those dis­cus­sions are go­ing well.”

Ro­get al­so clar­i­fied that not all trade unions were on board with the talks.

“It’s not JTUM, it is unions that are po­lit­i­cal­ly mind­ed who un­der­stand what has hap­pened and are pre­pared to take a con­crete po­si­tion in the in­ter­est of this coun­try. All who are apo­lit­i­cal, we have no prob­lem with them. But those who are po­lit­i­cal­ly as­tute and un­der­stand what Row­ley is do­ing, we will have dis­cus­sions,” he ex­plained.

Last month, the OW­TU sig­nalled its in­ten­tion to join forces with the UNC to un­seat the PNM gov­ern­ment in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions.

This isn’t the first time trade union­ists have part­nered with the UNC. In 2010, the Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice joined with the UNC to form the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship, a coali­tion that even­tu­al­ly col­lapsed.

How­ev­er, with the trade union move­ment now on the same side as the UNC, Ro­get is op­ti­mistic.

He again crit­i­cised Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley for meet­ing with Naveen Jin­dal, the chair­man of Jin­dal Steel and Pow­er Ltd, who faces crim­i­nal charges in In­dia.

“The Prime Min­is­ter has no moral au­thor­i­ty. He does not own this re­fin­ery,” Ro­get said.

Dr Row­ley met with Jin­dal at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann’s last month and ac­cord­ing to the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Jin­dal ex­pressed an in­ter­est in the re­fin­ery.

A 2013 Forbes re­port stat­ed that Jin­dal was al­leged­ly in­volved in the “Coal­gate” scan­dal, lead­ing to In­dia’s fed­er­al po­lice fil­ing a case against Jin­dal Steel and Pow­er Ltd over coal min­ing rights. The Prime Min­is­ter has al­ready said he was un­aware of those charges.

How­ev­er, Ro­get ac­cused the Prime Min­is­ter of de­cep­tion.

“If you are be­fore the court for crim­i­nal charges, you have no right be­ing in the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre of our coun­try,” Ro­get said.