All Trinidad Union supports OWTU

At a news conference last Thursday, Roget claimed that the restructuring committee set up by the Government to restructure Petrotrin was a ruse and they were instead “surreptitiously” moving to sell off the company’s assets. However Energy Minister Franklin Khan, in a media conference last week said, “The Ministry of Energy is not putting Petrotrin’s acreage for bid. Petrotrin has its acreage. It has a responsibility to develop its acreage and also has a responsibility to its shareholder, the people of Trinidad and Tobago to run a profitable enterprise.”

But, in a show of solidarity with its brother union, Maharaj applauded the actions of the OWTU saying the nation’s patrimony “must be protected at all costs and not sold off to private companies looking to make a quick profit at the expense and detriment of our country.”

“The problem with Petrotrin is not the Union or Workforce, it is the Management of the Company and the proper implementation of policies and systems to prevent wastage, corruption and ensure proper maintenance of all facilities,” Maharaj stated. He continued: “The selling off of the assets of Petrotrin and the privatisation of the company will be a blow not only to our national pride and our economic welfare, but we have to ensure that certain key Public Utilities and Industries always remain in the hands of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”

“In addition, full support must be given to Mr. Roget because we must never again allow any group of workers in this country to suffer the pain, misery and frustration, that the workers of Caroni (1975) Ltd faced when the sugar workers were forcibly retrenched and thousands lost their jobs and the steel workers when ArcelorMittal Steel Company wound up, throwing hundreds on the breadline,” he stated.