Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tions draw near­er, the Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al of the Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union (OW­TU),  An­cel Ro­get, has con­firmed that dis­cus­sions with the UNC are pro­gress­ing well.

He was speak­ing to re­porters at a news con­fer­ence on Fri­day held at the Pointe-a-Pierre Round­about.

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

This is not the first time trade union­ists have part­nered with the UNC; in 2010, the Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice al­lied 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.

"Evil con­tin­ues to thrive when good men and women re­main silent," he re­mind­ed his sup­port­ers dur­ing a news con­fer­ence out­side the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery on Fri­day morn­ing, ad­dress­ing the gov­ern­ment's al­leged bias in the re­fin­ery ac­qui­si­tion process.

When asked about 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." He added, "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.

"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," Ro­get re­vealed.