Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Just days af­ter help­ing se­cure a gen­er­al elec­tion vic­to­ry for the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union (OW­TU) pres­i­dent gen­er­al de­clared to work­ers gath­ered at a May Day ral­ly and march in San Fer­nan­do: “It’s we time now.”

The ral­ly was held just hours be­fore Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was sworn in as prime min­is­ter.

When asked by re­porters whether he would ac­cept a min­is­te­r­i­al post, Ro­get said: “We will cross that bridge when we get there.”

He al­so dis­missed a so­cial me­dia list pur­port­ing to be the new Cab­i­net on which he is Labour Min­is­ter as “PNM pro­pa­gan­da” but said he is “very con­fi­dent” the ten per cent wage in­crease cam­paign promise made by Per­sad-Bisses­sar will be ful­filled.

Hun­dreds of trade union mem­bers par­tic­i­pat­ed in the march which on­ly got po­lice per­mis­sion min­utes be­fore its start, al­though the re­quest was made a month ago.

Ro­get was joined by Point Fortin MP-elect Ernesto Ke­sar and La Brea MP elect Clyde El­der, both OW­TU mem­bers, who con­test­ed the elec­tion un­der the UNC ban­ner.

Promis­ing to im­ple­ment an agen­da that will ben­e­fit all work­ers, Ro­get said they had “a lot of work” and “lit­tle time” to do it.

He ac­cused the pre­vi­ous PNM regime of im­ple­ment­ing poli­cies aimed at op­press­ing work­ers and de­stroy­ing the trade labour move­ment.

“We were here long be­fore them, and we will be here long af­ter they leave,” he said.

Turn­ing his at­ten­tion to for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Ro­get said: “Go in peace and deal with sheep and goat. Go in peace and deal with your fam­i­ly. Go in peace and leave us in peace.”

He al­so crit­i­cised Row­ley for ac­cept­ing the Salary Re­view Com­mis­sion’s in­crease, adding: “Go in peace and spend your fat pock­et of mon­ey.”

Ro­get de­scribed the in­crease as “blood mon­ey” which rep­re­sent­ed the tears of many work­ers who were put on the bread­line and fam­i­lies who can­not put food on their ta­ble or pay their mort­gages.

“We in the trade union move­ment, we are se­ri­ous ones in the trade union move­ment. We say if they at­tack us, we will not rest un­til we deal with their back­side,” he warned.

Ro­get en­cour­aged unions to re­main unit­ed and vig­i­lant as they fight for work­ers’ rights.

No­tably ab­sent was the Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion, which had al­so sup­port­ed the UNC.