OWTU calls for Petrotrin restructure

Government’s approach to “this crucial issue”, OWTU acting president general Carlton Gibson said in a release, “seems void of the priority and urgency that the situation desperately needs.” Gibson is acting for Ancel Roget, who is attending an IndustriALL Global Union executive meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

Without restructuring, Gibson said, Petrotrin would continue to be burdened with poor management decisions, and with a governance structure that has repeatedly proven to be “a colossal failure.” With Government’s “business-as-usual approach” to Petrotrin’s management, Gibson said, “We again run the risk of other catastrophic failures with costly and deadly consequences” for the company, the environment and the country.

OWTU had warned for several years, he said, that the failures of Petrotrin’s various managers and directors would inevitably lead to problems that would result in financial loss, environmental dangers, and even the loss of lives and limbs.

He said the seepage of gallons of bunker fuel from Petrotrin’s refinery into the Guaracara River on Sunday from a ruptured storage tank “has given full credence to our claim that poor leadership decisions continue to plague this most important state enterprise.” OWTU has always highlighted the critical need, he said, to improve and adequately maintain the refinery’s infrastructure, including pipelines, storage tanks, and plant equipment to better maximise the company’s profit margins. The OWTU had always argued that Petrotrin’s current management structure had not been working in its own interest or the country’s.

Gibson recalled that before the December 17, 2013 oil spill, which affected communities along the coastline of the southwestern peninsula and which was one of the worst ecological disasters in the country’s history, OWTU publicly raised concerns about the pending disaster and “subsequent cover-up in the aftermath.” The concerns were presented in writing to the President, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and Independent Senators, he said, and the OWTU had warned that if the concerns were not urgently addressed, Petrotrin would run the risk of another major oil spill. Unfortunately, said Gibson, neither management nor the board expressed the willingness to deal immediately with this ever-emerging crisis.