Roget’s careless statement

These are some of the lessons we are yet to learn, judging from the unfortunate statements of trade unionist Ancel Roget. In relation to one multinational’s decision to locate certain activities elsewhere, the trade unionist advised the company it could take its oil rig and go.

He appeared to be paraphrasing the Mighty Sparrow’s lyrics from his 1981 social commentary, We Like It So (Steel Beam), “We grieving with frustration through maladministration / Take you steal beam and go.” To be fair, Roget’s comments came in the context for his group’s lobbying for safe working conditions for workers. This is a call with which we can hardly disagree. It matters not where a company comes from.

Once operating within our borders, it must ensure adequate measures are in place to preserve worker safety – be it locals or foreigners working on these islands.

Local companies, too, have a similar obligation to ensure enough safety systems are in place and that work safety/OSHA rules are complied with. Yet there is a way to lobby for things. Issuing a belligerent statement effectively threatening to run the company out of town is not the way to represent workers’ interests.

Roget must learn the difference between power and influence. It is a difference which even world leaders like US President Donald Trump do not always grasp, as demonstrated by his forced rowback on a range of foreign policy matters.

Roget must be independent, yes, but he must also be able to maintain the ability to get company officials to come to his point of view. Otherwise the price is too high.

When these companies leave, they don’t just take investment, they also take with them jobs and vital momentum needed to keep the economy vibrant and thriving.

Their departure damages our standing internationally.

At the end of the day, all multinationals are free to come and go as they please. What is required, however, is the proper enforcement of all laws and rules that our Parliament has deemed fit. These companies have, in certain sectors, enjoyed incentives and benefits. But for good reason.

We hope Roget’s statement was one that was made in the heat of the moment. Whether careless or deliberate, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has had to intervene to seek to neutralise any damage done. Acknowledging Roget’s right to speak freely, Rowley nonetheless described the statement as an unhealthy one. “Lead in a way that is beneficial to the national well-being,” Rowley urged leaders generally.

His perspective has been shaped by the realities of boardrooms in which he has recently had cause to lobby on behalf of Trinidad and Tobago in Houston, Texas.

As the head of Cabinet, Rowley will also have seen first-hand the country’s reliance at this stage on all forms of investment. Rowley said it was a matter of concern when investors are picking up their plants in South America and taking them to North America where gas is more available in terms of volume and price. In TT, he said, plants are closing because of a lack of gas.

“That is not the kind of environment that attracts investment in the gas industry.” An economic downturn is not the time for the industrial relations environment to degenerate into open hostility.

It is not that stakeholders must kowtow uncritically to foreign companies.

Rather, they must understand the fact that we are now in a global world and must partner with these actors to advance our interests.