OWTU never had a chance with Petrotrin

THE EDITOR: It appears that those who should know better, ie the leaders of the OWTU, did not consider that no capitalist government would hand control of a major industry to a workers organisation.

To do so would not only lay an initial foundation towards a socialist society but would set a precedent for the ownership of other divested state enterprises that could also fall into the hands of worker organisations.

Such a development would be frowned upon by other capitalist governments as well as local capitalist entrepreneurs.

The Government would have been well aware of this when it offered to negotiate with the OWTU. Therefore such a sale, in my opinion, would never come to fruition. The end result was a given. OWTU would not be given the opportunity to own Petrotrin.

I am not a lawyer but maybe the OWTU might have succeeded if it had operated as a silent partner, with its financial partners making the bid and only coming forward after the objective was achieved.

RUTHVEN D GODDARD

Trincity