Union condemns Petrotrin wage settlement claims

PRESIDENT GENERAL of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Errol McLeod yesterday refuted claims by State owned oil company Petrotrin, that a settlement had been reached between the union and the company over contentious wage negotiations.

Mcleod also slammed the “indiscipline” of Petrotrin’s Corporate communications Manager Arnold Corneal, who reportedly told a daily newspaper (not Newsday) that a settlement had been reached by both parties. “I recall agreeing with the Human Resources vice president Rawlinson Agard, who had said that the negotiations had reached a very sensitive stage and both parties should not make any wild and indisciplined statements,” McLeod said. “Then I picked up the paper and there is the corporate communications manager saying a settlement had been reached when the opposite occurred,” McLeod told a large gathering of workers yesterday during a mass meeting yesterday morning at the main gates of the company’s Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.

McLeod added that Corneal did not attend last Friday’s marathon 20-hour meeting between the union and Petrotrin executives, at Petrotrin’s Beaumont Hill Centre. Efforts yesterday by Newsday to reach Corneal for a response to McCleod’s assertions, proved futile, as Corneal was said to be in high-level meetings. “We are calling on the executive management to discipline Corneal before we make the call for him to leave this place,” McCleod cried. The veteran union leader also called on Petrotrin to issue a “full apology” for what he termed as “erroneous and misleading” statements made regarding the state of negotiations. The stalemate over wage negotiations at State-owned oil company Petrotrin continued, with McLeod informing the workers yesterday morning, of a scheduled meeting at 2 pm (yesterday), between the union and Petrotrin, over the wage negotiations. He said the company would have to settle all outstanding issues presently being negotiated between both parties and advised workers to return to work, saying, they should remain “on the alert,” since they may be called to “stand in defence of this breadwinner.”

In a fiery mood, McLeod said while the “gaps” had been closed on several issues, salaries and wage increases, position upgrades, pensions and other increases remained “unsettled.” “All of us will be reasonably satisfied when the negotiations are completed,” McLeod said, adding that the union had not departed from its official position of a 25 percent wage increase. “And if we do not reach an agreement today, I am letting the company know that I will be available to continue negotiations until we reach a settlement, even if this means coming out on Christmas Day,” he said. Simultaneous negotiations regarding wage and salary negotiations are also being conducted for Trinmar Operations workers. McLeod was expected to lead the OWTU’s team at yesterday’s 2 pm meeting with Petrotrin officials led by vice president (Human Resource) Rawlingson Agard. He is expected to hold an early morning mass meeting today, to inform workers of what transpired at yesterday’s 2 pm meeting with Petrotrin.