Yesterday, president general of the Oilfields’ Workers Trade Union Ancel Roget served a strike notice to Petrotrin president Fitzroy Harewood announcing the disgruntled workers’ intention to begin the strike come next Monday __ the start of the new school term.

At a press conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader in Portof- Spain, Persad-Bissessar had a burning question for the government to answer.

“Why was there no meeting of the Government and the workers? Why did not the Government intervene prior to discussions with the workers involved? Why has Petrotrin reached where it has reached. I would not want to intervene in the Petrotrin issue. We have seen a breakdown in the collective bargaining process when Government gave a unilateral decision as to what should be the wage increase with not just Petrotrin but for the entire public sector, and Finance Minister (Colm Imbert) mentioned 0-0-0.” She said if the Government had continued its action against former executive chairman Malcolm Jones perhaps $2 million would have been recovered. Petrotrin had sued Jones for US$109 for the World Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) project.

However, the lawsuit was discontinued.

She said Petrotrin today has monies owing that would come into effect for about $14 billion.

Persad-Bissessar, however, still holds out hope that Government and the workers could come to some agreement before the latter take drastic action and cripple the company by way of a protracted strike.

“I think the crisis could have been averted but there is still time to avert the crisis, and let’s hope good sense prevails on both sides.

Government has scheduled a meeting with the Labour Minister within this four-day window that they have been given, and we will see where those discussions go, but is not today that this issue arose.

Before we even reached here steps could have been taken.

She then hit the government’s handling of the country’s affairs since assuming office in September 2015. “We have to ask whether Government could have taken money squandered elsewhere and been able to pay the workers, not just at Petrotrin, but elsewhere. The economy is no longer at a standstill, it is plunging down the cliff and going down, down, down. No plan, programme or project has been announced to deal with recession in Trinidad and Tobago, to deal with the uplifting of the economy, to deal with the creation of jobs.

“The devaluation of the TT$ is staring us straight in the eye. The value of TT$ to the US$ on the black market was $13 and the Government is not addressing this situation.

She wrote a letter to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley the Opposition was willing to work together for the passage of the legislation before any deadline whether the same as February 28, 2017 or otherwise.

Persad-Bissessar said such an agreement would ensure that we as a country met the stated deadline and the fears and anxiety of citizens would be assuaged.

The Bill required a special majority for passage, and Government as presently constituted could not pass the legislation with the support of the Opposition.

The Bill sought to validate the exchange of information between Trinidad and Tobago and the United States made under the 1989 Tax Information Agreement which was in breach of the rights of citizens whose information was exchanged.

Also, it enacted into TT’s domestic law the terms of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) signed between TT and the US for the purpose of effecting a reporting regime for financial institutions to comply with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

Speaking during a news conference yesterday at the Office of the Opposition, Persad-Bissessar also asked Government to consider removing those clauses in the Bill which violated our constitutional guarantees (by looking to the statutes of other Caricom countries which gave effect to their IGAs).

She said if this was done it would remove the necessity for a special minority, in which case, the legislation could be passed by a simple minority.

Persad-Bissessar said the Opposition would not support the wholesale surrender of the sovereignty of this country because of the expected consequences that may transpire from the non-passage of this legislation.

She noted that the passage of this legislation and its implementation may also affect the supply, demand and availability of foreign exchange in TT’s financial institutions.

“Already our country is facing serious FOREX challenges.

The Government has not provided the information necessary to resolve the many issues arising, and it is upon the Government that the duty falls to do so,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar said the unfortunate and unsatisfactory state that Government and TT found themselves not only justified this legislation being the subject of a JSC, but mandated it.

“One of the major failings of the country is the inability of the Police Service to keep pace and get on top of the criminal conduct in TT as reflected by the relatively unsatisfactory level of detection and crime suppression which we are experiencing,” the Prime Minister said. Declaring these are “facts which we can’t run away from,” Rowley indicated the best response to deal with criminal elements in TT which seem to be getting “more and more brazen”, is a well organised and well managed Police Service. He hinted there were “other responses that have to be made” but did not explain what those responses were.

The Prime Minister was confident that the data generated by Deosaran’s committee, which includes Deputy Police Commissioner Harold Phillip who acted last year as Police Commissioner while Stephen Williams was on leave, “will allow us to respond to the need to support, prune or trim or to relocate as the case might be.” Indicating the committee will be serviced by the National Security Ministry and the entire exercise is drive by the National Security Council (NSC) which he chairs, Rowley said $21 billion has been spent on policing over the last decade and the Police Service currently has 6,000 officers on its payroll.

The Prime Minister said while the original intention was for the audit to be done largely with assistance from the British, that support is still forthcoming but “we decided to start from the local end.”

At the TTPS’ weekly media briefing at the Police Administration Building in Port-of- Spain, Pierre said 2015 saw a total of 11,135 serious crimes being reported, while 2016 saw 11,152.

“There were 420 reports of murders for 2015 as opposed to 462 for 2016 which represented a ten percent increase. We realised a 14.5 percent decrease in woundings and shootings when compared to 2015 to 2016, 600 in 2015 as opposed to 513 in 2016. For sexual crimes, we realised a 22 percent decrease from 625 in 2015 to 489 in 2016. Reports of serious indecency, there was a 54 percent decrease where there were 70 in 2015 as opposed to 32 in 2016.

Reports of kidnapping, there was a 32 percent decrease from 106 in 2015 to 72 in 2016.” Pierre noted a two percent increase in burglaries and breakins from 2011 in 2015 to 2148 in 2016, and a 19 percent decrease in larceny of motor vehicles from 785 in 2015 to 636 in 2016. “For reports of larceny within a dwelling house, we realised a two percent decrease from 237 in 2015 to 232 in 2016.

Detection of narcotic offences, we had also a decrease which went from 453 in 2015 to 382 in 2016. Overall, the reports of serious crimes were almost the same in both years, in 2015, there were 11,135 reports of serious crimes as opposed 11,152 reports in 2016.

Regarding road traffic accidents and road traffic fatalities, our preliminary data shows that in 2015, there were 128 reports of fatal accidents and, in 2016, there were 114 reports which amounted to an 11 percent decrease.” Of the fatal road traffic accidents, there were 147 deaths in 2015 and 135 in 2016, an eight percent decrease.

Lalla’s husband, Ashook Naggassar, reported to police that she went missing on Thursday last from their home located at Hill View Lane, Lower in Couva.

He lodged the Missing Person’s report at the Gran Couva Police Station at about 3.40 pm on Saturday, after attempts to contact her proved futile. On Tuesday, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) issued a press release seeking the public assistance in relocating her.

Police sources yesterday confirmed that Lalla was staying at a house in Caroni and with the help of the public, police were able to locate her on Tuesday night.

According to reports, at about 11 pm, Ian Monroe was standing in the roadway in front of his home when several loud explosions were heard.

Relatives and neighbours made a check and found his bullet- riddled body slumped in the roadway.

Officers from the Homicide Bureau were alerted, as well the district medical officer, and the body was ordered to be removed to the Forensic Science Centre.

Police sources said it appeared that Monroe was shot over ten times.

Investigators were following certain leads in this murder and an arrest was imminent.

Up to press time, the murder toll stood at seven for the year so far.

In a letter yesterday, Khan said it was interesting to see members of the police coming out in full force to ensure law and order occurred on the roads leading into the capital city.

He said had it not been for their extreme diligence, scores of drivers could not have been charged for disobeying the laws of the roadways while on their commute to and from work.

Khan said that while some may consider this action as being more disruptive and hampering to the normal flow of traffic, it is clear that these police checkpoints were not only necessary in apprehending errant drivers, but also ensured that they all drove at a speed that limited vehicle accidents to mere fender benders, rather than the type of accidents that claimed so many lives each year.

He said following the decision to remove traffic lights along the highway and main roads, it became apparent that drivers were using this too conveniently and, as such, police checkpoints have now become necessary to manually slow down reckless drivers.

The MP said while extra manpower would cost the Police Service more, he was sure it was Government’s overall plan to revitalise the economy through aggressive ticketing.

However, he said as a result of his experience during a trip to the North Coast last weekend, it would seem that the police may be missing an opportunity to capitalise on these types of events, based on the number of errant drivers who were also visiting the beach.

“As a result of persons parked illegally along the roadway, as well as committing other infractions, myself along with many other drivers were forced to endure up to three hours of traffic in getting to and from the beach.

While the route itself is restrictive and insufficient to deal with the crowds that holidays attract, the lack of police presence allowed persons to drive and park in an unregulated manner, which only aggravated the problem,” Khan said.

“All we can say is what they said and they said that as recently as when we were coming up here for this meeting, he requested more information from them with respect to different costing levels.” However, Roget said both sides agreed to further conciliation and will meet again at 1.30 pm tomorrow at the Industrial Court.

He said that meeting will give the Minister of Finance the chance to put “some sort of proposal” to the union. Roget said the union had also agreed to a meeting next Tuesday in the event the matter is not resolved by then and also had a meeting with the Minister of Labour today and “our preference for that is that she comes accompanied by a high-powered team from the Government and discuss in its entirety this whole issue putting on the table some kind of a proposal but thus far, I want to repeat the point, the Government is remaining silent. We have not had any proposal from the Government – is only zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero and we can’t take that.” He said through all these meetings the union “is communicating to everybody that we are using every available effort and using every available opportunity to try to bring resolution to this issue.” Still, he reminded the country that the union has served strike notice and the clock is ticking and over the next 96 hours plus another 24 hours the workers will be walking off their various work stations, withdrawing their labour legally for the next three months if that becomes necessary.

He said this was not what the union wanted to happen but the public and everybody must understand that this is an issue of respect for the oil worker. He said the oil worker has not had a wage increase, a settlement or even an offer for periods that other people got. “Everybody else got but the oil worker didn’t get and zero, zero, zero and another zero, zero zero and nobody is talking to us to determine how they are going to deal with this outstanding payment, that is disrespectful.” And the other part of that is that we are saying clearly that we are not demanding all this big set of money in backpay. “We are saying that for the period in which everybody else got, let us apply an increase and quantify the debt and over an extended period of time the company can discharge this debt, but don’t for heaven’s sake don’t disregard us and don’t disrespect us by not having the conversation. In the conversation once we sit down and examine different proposals and so on we will be able to arrive at a settlement, but thus far, the Government has been very silent and the company who was talking with us, they say they don’t have authority. So could you imagine that, if they say they don’t have authority and the Government has authority but the Government is not talking with them.”

“Considering the company’s financial difficulties,” the Chamber said it is of the view that “the key bargaining stakeholders ought to have centred their dialogue on the survival of (Petrotrin), as opposed to one side making untenable demands for wage increases.” Noting that at the end of the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2016; October to December, Petrotrin’s closing figures registered a staggering drop in revenue of TT $3.2 billion – part of a more than 50 percent decline over a four-year period, the Chamber said it “deems it wholly irresponsible of the OWTU to take action designed to hold the country to ransom based on their trade union-led agitation for salary increases.” “In Petrotrin’s current financial state, this action is nothing short of unconscionable,” the Chamber declared.

“At the end of the day, it is the more vulnerable who most stand to lose, should Petrotrin be forced into a position of capitulating to the OWTU demands.

The implications of this to our people and to our local economy in an already volatile climate, cannot be underestimated.” The Chamber also categorically denounced the strike action, challenging the OWTU to reconsider its position and renew its tripartite pledge to dialogue “in a manner that will facilitate a fair and non-disruptive settlement for all common interests.” “Anything less, is unworthy of the true spirit of the collective bargaining process,” the Chamber stated.

Three to four seats in the THA could go to the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) b led by Public Services Association (PSA) President Watson Duke, who unsuccessfully contested the Tobago East seat as an independent candidate in the September 7, 2015 General Elections.

The PDP was formed after those elections and this will be its first foray into any national elections in this country.

According to a survey done by HHB Associates Limited ahead of this month’s polls in Tobago.

The results of this survey was based on a telephone same of 300 adults ages 18 years and over between December 17 and 18, 2016 and who are registered to vote. The sample was drawn from all 12 electoral districts in Tobago.

The survey is intended to give an overview of the situation in Tobago as a whole and not to predict the outcome of the elections. HHB Associates explained this is because the survey was done before Nomination Day (Tuesday) so that parties and candidates were not known at the time the survey was conducted.

However the survey’s early prediction is that the PNM is “strongly likely” to win six seats and an additional two in the THA.

The results in one of these seats, Canaan/Bon Accord, seems to be very close between the PNM and the PDP at this time.

The PDP is “strongly likely” to win three seats and possibly a fourth seat which could be Canaan/Bon Accord. Crime (60 percent), unemployment (47 percent) and inflation (33 percent) are the three most important issues in the January 23 polls. Corruption in government only attracts 8.7 percent of voters’ interest while internal self-government for Tobago sits at the bottom of the issue totem pole with only 5.4 percent of respondents interested in it.

Of the 300 persons sampled.

54 percent said they were interested in politics and current affairs compared to 21 percent who are not interested at all and 25 percent who are somewhat uninterested.

On the candidate for THA Chief Secretary, there is “a virtual dead heat” between Duke (37 percent) and PNM Tobago Council leader Kelvin Charles (36 percent).

Incumbent THA Chief Secretary Orville London is not standing for re-election.

Former People’s Partnership (PP) government minister Christlyn Moore (who leads the Tobago Forwards); Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) leader Ashworth Jack and former THA chief secretary Hochoy Charles have higher unfavourability ratings of 53, 61 and 50 percent respectively. When asked who would be the best Chief Secretary, there is a dead heat again between Charles (Kelvin) and Duke, of 23 and 24 percent respectively.

The survey said 30 percent of respondents refused to answer this question. A reasonably high voter turnout is expected on January 23.