OWTU to share proposal with President

THE Oilfield Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) intends to hand-deliver its proposal for the restructuring of state-owned Petrotrin to the Opposition Leader, Independent Senators and the President on Monday.

Speaking to reporters today at Independence Square, Port of Spain, OWTU's President General Ancel Roget said the intended recipients carry a national responsibility to ensure there is good governance in TT.

He was in the capital city distributing flyers to citizens encouraging them to stay away from work to show their displeasure of government on Friday, the third anniversary of the PNM in office.

The proposal, Roget said, will convert the company into a viable and profitable state enterprise. Since last week when Petrotrin announced that it will be closing the refinery at Point-a-Pierre, the labour movement has been calling on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to reverse the decision and meet with the union.

“We are also going to press for a national debate on this issue. This issue is too critical to be left up to Rowley and his government alone,” Roget said.

The union, he said, is prepared, ready, willing and able to campaign post-September 7 “to every single corner of the country” to educate the population of the issue.

“When he was literally begging for the job to be prime minister of this country, professing that he would do better than those whom he was attempting to replace at that time, he did not say for one minute that he would be sending you away from your jobs,” Roget said referring to the workers who would lose their jobs due to impending closure.

He urged citizens to rest and reflect saying the Government failed to effectively address several social issues facing the country including the education and health systems.