Achong firmly entrenched in PNM

FORMER Labour Minister Lawrence Achong has no intentions of resigning from the ruling People’s National Movement, (PNM) party or vacating his seat as the elected Member of Parliament for Point Fortin. “I will continue to maintain my status as the PNM representative of Point Fortin and will continue to be a member of the party,” Achong said. Achong made his political future clear while speaking on Thursday evening at the point Fortin Chamber of Energy and Industry’s monthly general meeting at South Western Court, point Fortin.

Asked whether a possible return to Cabinet was in the offing, Achong jokingly replied by asking why anyone would want to remain a member of the present Cabinet. The outspoken MP also said any possible return to Cabinet was purely at the discretion of the Prime Minister. “You have to ask the Prime Minister that first and, depending on what he says, I will then answer you,” Achong said. However, he acknowledged serving the divergent needs of the constituency was now “harder” since his resignation from Cabinet. Achong also spoke at length on the seven-week long industrial impasse at Atlantic LNG’s Train IV project which was cited as the reason for his resignation from Cabinet. “All that is happening now is so unnecessary,” he said, adding that the proposal for a sectoral minimum wage had been submitted to Cabinet since September 8. “And it (the proposal) has languished there where it is still languishing today,” he said.

Achong said workers may now receive an even higher wage increase than what had been originally proposed in his Cabinet recommendations. He said the “pull-through” cost, after the plant was up and running, would be in the region of some US$60-70 million. “Bechtel would absorb very little of that and so too would the sub-contractors. Atlantic would have to absorb some of that and the Government would have to absorb the rest of it in terms of lost revenue,” he said. He reiterated his belief that the seven-week impasse between striking contract workers and Bechtel International would be resolved “within another week or so.” In direct reference to objections from members of the business community who are claiming increases in minimum wages would lead to a corresponding rise in inflation, Achong said the introduction of a national minimum wage in 1999 did not result in an exorbitant rise in the basic standard of living nor had it impacted negatively on consumer goods prices. He also questioned the contribution of the light manufacturing sector to the Gross Domestic Product saying that sector only averaged 9.5 percent although these businesses were the recipients of numerous tax breaks. Notably absent from the meeting was Point Fortin Mayor St Clair Natta.