Using the National patrimony to immobilise TT

It is on record that Petrotrin employs a labour force that is ten times what is required to run an operation of its size. The OWTU has been holding TT to ransom since Independence and inflicting enormous punishment on the people of this country by its striking strategy with no respite in the offing.

Additionally the rest of the people do not get any dividends from its largest oil company harvesting the nation’s energy patrimony for the exclusive benefit of the members of the OWTU who already command astronomical wages beyond the opportunity cost of its labour.

The late Patrick Manning sought to break this OWTU strangle-hold on TT when he established the Caroni Liquid Fuel Facility near to the Caroni Cremation Site at a cost of $1.5 billion but without commissioning the requisite feasibility study. He intended to introduce a private sector management/operation of this fuel depot away from NP and therefore without any industrial strike opportunity for the OWTU to shut it down to leverage wage negotiations.

To date the facility is non-operational, has been assigned to NP and workers represented by OWTU again. The facility is deteriorating daily and may not be salvaged because rust has invaded the tanks and pipelines.

Except for the above facility and an occasional Defence Force intervention contingency plan, no serious attempt has been made to insulate the hapless and besieged population from the insidious and callous visitings of the OWTU. It is as if The Exchequer owes a perennial debt to the OWTU to satisfy their demands first and foremost while the rest of us wait as mendicants after the retiring OWTU’s President-Generals walk away with several million-dollar handshakes.

STEPHEN KANGAL Caroni