PM promises committee to plan refinery re-opening at Labour Day rally

IN a rare move for a sitting head of government, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar took to the platform at Labour Day celebrations in Fyzabad, where she pledged her commitment to the promises made during the election campaign earlier this year about workers.

She provided an update on the potential reopening of the state-owned Petrotrin refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre.

"We made a commitment that we would consider exploring what we can do to open that refinery. What we have done as a government is agreed to establish a committee to develop a strategy to reactive the refinery," Persad-Bissessar said.

"Your representatives will be on that committee together with other experts. But we have to go in there to access what is there before we can go forward."

She made the announcement at Charlie King Junction in Fyzabad on June 19, where scores of workers from various unions gathered after marching through the streets earlier.

The crowd cheered as she asked for their "permission" to set up the committee to explore strategies for reopening the refinery.

She added that good things came to those who waited.

The UNC leader said she intended to discuss the matter with Ancel Roget, president general of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU), and to receive an interim report within two months.

Saying she was not part of the "one per cent," Persad-Bissessar added,

"I am one of you. I have come, just like you, from the working class.

"I understand what it is because I have been there, done that. I understand what it's like not to have a house. I told you before, we (her family) were like parang singers, we were always moving from house to house."

Persad-Bissessar said one hand did not clap, and repeatedly gave the commitment that if the workers worked with her, she would keep her commitment to the Workers' Agenda.

"Let us build this county. If you think it is taking too long, remember that for ten years, we were in the wilderness.

"Rome was not built in a day. We are working on it… I ask for your help. We have to do it together."

Before announcing the possibility of reopening the refinery, she urged the gathering to remind their children about who "blew out the light of Petrotrin."

Saying she was from south Trinidad, Persad-Bissessar said the flames from the refinery had been a landmark that let her know she was almost home while travelling on the Solomon Hochoy Highway.

"That is a beacon in our land," she said, adding that the oil and gas industry is the oldest industry in the world.

Several government ministers attended the Labour Day event, including Leroy Baptiste, Minister of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development, who is a former president of the Public Services Association (PSA).

Other government representatives attended were Dr Roodal Moonilal, Ravi Ratiram, Dr Michael Dowlath, Dr Lackram Bodoe, Davendranath Tancoo, Clyde Elder, Ernesto Kesar and others.

The refinery was shut down in November 2018 by the previous government, citing financial losses.

About 5,000 workers were directly affected.

The then Dr Keith Rowley-led government later divided Petrotrin into four subsidiaries — Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd, Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd, Guaracara Refinery Ltd and Petrotrin.

Over the years, Roget, who is also the head of the Joint Trade Union Movement, had publicly expressed his outrage. The union leader had deemed the closure "the greatest crime committed against the workers, people of south Trinidad and TT."

The OWTU's Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Ltd—a company wholly owned by the union—was considered the preferred bidder among three for the facility.

However, the then-government eventually rejected the company's counter-proposals.

In February, the then-acting prime minister Stuart Young announced that the government had selected a proposal from the Nigerian company Oando Trading DMCC to lease the refinery with a view to restarting it.