Roget, Duke vow to 'bury' PNM

“For us to live, the PNM must die,” Oilfield Workers' Trade Union president Ancel Roget threatened last night at Rienzi Complex, Couva, where workers spent the night in preparation for this morning's second leg of the march into Port of Spain.

Addressing workers before the prepared makeshift beds at the complex, Roget waxed political, calling on them not to support the PNM because of its "anti-labour" policies.

He said the trade union movement will continue to fight the government from all fronts.

“When they think we are coming from the east, we are coming from the west. When they think we are coming from the north, we are coming from the south, When they think we are coming from under, we are coming from on top, and when they think we are not coming at all – it is now self we are coming to deal with their backsides.”

The OWTU president reminded the workers that since August, when the board of state-owned Petrotrin announced the impending closure of the refinery, the OWTU and other unions had ntensified a campaign to reverse the decision. He told workers not to fall prey to payout packages promised by Petrotrin, because the issue of job security is more important.

“I want the strength of conviction and resistance, that we are not examining any packages; we are examining only our job security."

He called on all “concerned citizens and supporters of this noble cause” to participate in the march, which ends tomorrow with a rally on the Brian Lara Promenade, Port of Spain.

President of the Public Services Association (PSA) Watson Duke, who stood barefoot on the platform , said he "shoots with two guns," which makes him a "deadly" man. One is from the perspective of a trade union leader, and the other as a politician. Duke is also the minority leader of the Tobago House of Assembly, and told the workershe will win the two Tobago parliamentary seats in the next general election.

“Rowley thought he was the blackest man in TT until he confronted me and he recognised I more black than he. And I am no Oreo. Watson Duke is what you call a toolum, black right through and sweet in the mouth,” Duke said. He called on the workers not to accept Petrotrin packages.