Rahael to meet Caroni workers again

JUST HOURS after he had to be escorted from a stormy meeting with sugar workers at the Rudranath Capildeo Learning Resource Centre on Thursday night, Agriculture Minister John Rahael declared that he would be “down in Central Trinidad again”.

Rahael mentioned the unexpected presence of union officials at the meeting. “Obviously their agenda is to continue to feed the workers misinformation so that the workers would not get a good picture of what is being offered,” he said. Rahael was escorted out of the meeting by his security personnel after a question-and-answer session got out of hand. The meeting was organised to explain details of Government’s VSEP offer to employees of Caroni (1975) Limited. Tempers flared soon after Rudy Indarsingh, President of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union (ATSGWTU), expressed dissatisfaction with the Minister’s response to a question about the VSEP and demanded an apology.

When some workers began shouting and appeared to be moving towards the head table, Rahael was quickly whisked out of the auditorium through a back door. Rahael later said he never felt physically threatened and was confident he would receive the cooperation of the workers. He said he planned to continue talks with the Caroni workers. “At no time had I felt insecure or threatened by anyone or any of the circumstances,” the Minister insisted, adding that the decision to leave the meeting was taken by his security staff.

Rahael, who referred to VSEP packages offered to PTSC, WASA and Port Authority workers, said he was confident the sugar workers would come to accept it since they will be receiving better severance packages than any other workers before them. “People in Caroni and people in Central Trinidad are very enterprising and resilient people,” he said. According to the Minister, all Caroni lands will remain under agricultural use and first preference for leasing of the lands will be given to Caroni workers who are serious about farming. He added that the farmers will be given advice and support by government agencies.