Roget: Laying off 2,500 will be end of the PNM

On the eve of the 56th anniversary of Independence, government has decided to send home 2,500 permanent workers employed with state-owned Petrotrin, which has been the lifeblood of this country.

So said president general of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Ancel Roget, who also said the company plans to exit all 3,500 workers, which will effectively shut down the company, and then rehire 1,000, some 800 in exploration and production and 200 in refining and marketing.

As he broke the bad news to his comrades, who gathered at Beaumont Hill, Pointe-a-Pierre in large numbers for update on the earlier meeting between the board of Petrotrin and the executive of the union, Roget got their endorsement as he pledged to reject this proposal and fight to the bitter end.

“The long and short of the story is that Dr Rowley plans to send home 2,500 workers of Petrotrin. Get that in your head. And to do that and to end up with 100, they propose to send home all of the workers.

“There is absolutely no way in the world that we will remain quiet and you have a comfortable People’s National Movement (PNM) government in place that can send home 2,500 workers,” he declared, to which the blue-shirted union members roared in unison, “No way, no way, no way.”

Roget cautioned that this move “will mark, it has already marked the end of Dr Rowley, if in fact the end of the PNM.

“I don’t know anyone who is in this crowd who believes that after hearing this, that you are all supportive of that party that does this great injustice. Injustice when there is an option to you the workers, that you will continue to support that.”

He called on workers to blank all PNM activities, including the PNM cooler fete celebrating its sod-turning ceremony for a new party headquarters, saying it would be a betrayal to workers.

Roget also called on all “the PNM retirees who are silent: it is time to stand up and tell your government, your PNM people, they are doing nonsense, because it is going to affect your pension. “