OWTU threatens shutdown

Addressing workers prior to entering the Ministry of Labour’s St James Street, San Fernando yesterday, Roget pointed out that the union was prepared to bypass the Industrial Court and had already prepared “legal” strike notices to serve on the company should conciliatory talks at the Ministry fail to reach an acceptable agreement.

“We are not prepared to waste time going backward and forward in any meeting, we are prepared to listen, we are prepared to have them respond and if their response is not satisfactory, we are prepared to shut the blasted place down,” Roget said.

“And when we do that we will be doing it legally and therefore we call upon them to do the responsible thing and get their mandate and their instructions from wherever they need to get it and have these negotiations resolved,” he said.

“We have already prepared the strike notice and only waiting on the appropriate time, not too long from now to serve strike notice on the Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago in the interest of all the workers that work there,” he added.

Roget said, “If this is not resolved, we are not prepared to send these to the Court, we are prepared to take strike action, that is our right and we will exercise that right very soon.” He pointed out that while workers had not received any salary increases for some six years said these same workers were responsible for providing the fuel to power the nation.

“You can have vehicles on the road, you can have diesel, you can have jet fuel, these workers produce that, we are saying the workers ought to be treated with some level of respect and dignity,” he said, adding, “the company has offered six digits- zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero.” “The last time we checked, all those zeros cannot buy anything, they cannot deal with the rising cost of living and it certainly cannot address the worker morale and the productivity issues which is so badly needed throughout the country and Petrotrin in particular,” he said. “We want to warn the country- prepare for strike because if this does not resolve itself, Christmas or no Christmas, we are going to shut the place down,” he said. Asked how much the union was asking for, Roget said, “a reasonable rate and certainly zero is far from reasonable.” A senior Petrotrin official said the company would issue a statement outlining it position.