PM responds to OWTU head's claims over meeting invite: I am not a liar

ACCUSED of being a "liar" by president general of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Ancel Roget, the Prime Minister has taken to Facebook to defend his character and clarify statements he made at a public meeting last Saturday.

Dr Rowley said he was accustomed to being subjected to name calling by the union leader as it was not the first time Roget had accused him of telling an untruth.

At the PNM meeting at the Success Laventille Secondary School, Laventille on Saturday, Dr Rowley had said, before Petrotrin was shuttered in November 2018, then minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young was sent as a personal emissary to ask Roget to meet with him to discuss the company's future. He said Roget refused.

On Monday, at a press conference at OWTU's headquarters in San Fernando, Roget respond to what he called the PM’s “frontal and unprovoked attack.”

He said, “I want to say categorically, that statement is a lie. The Prime Minister never invited me to sit with him. I challenge him to show me where he would have invited me to sit with him and discuss Petrotrin matters.

“I challenge him to produce whether it is e-mail or phone records or text messages or What’sApp or a letter inviting me to sit down with him.

“Like e-mailgate you would not find anything because it just does not exist.

“May I also say that we have taken a principled position, that even if there is an invitation like that, no president general of the OWTU is going to sit down by himself with no prime minister and discuss no matter in secret.

“So if he has it in his mind don’t come now and tell a lie. If we need to speak to the Prime Minister, we write official letters.”

Similarly, he said, the permanent secretary in the office of the Prime Minister usually extends a letter of invitation when they want to engage the union.

“There is no such letter requesting a meeting with me and I refuse. That is a lie. Rowley lie and I am not afraid to say that.”

In an almost immediate response, Rowley took to Facebook to agree that no such letter existed because he sent Young to make the request in person.

“The head of the OWTU has just called me a liar. He claimed that I cannot produce any document to prove that I invited him to a meeting to discuss Petrotrin matters.

“Notice that he made a point of stating that no e-mail or letter to that effect exists. That is true but that does not make me a liar.

“I did better than that. I detailed the Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister (Young) to go in person and contact Mr Roget and invite him, to meet with me, at my request. I received a negative response.”

He said this is not the first time Roget has publicly called him a liar.

He said one week after he personally met with the OWTU leader and executive members to personally inform them of Cabinet's decision to close Petrotrin, "I was called a liar as Mr Roget said publicly that the union was never so advised.

“So you see, I am accustomed to this,” Rowley said.

At the OWTU's press conference, Roget also slammed Rowley 'dotish' union leaders reference.

Roget said his own response to the downgrading of Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Ltd (TPHL) by international rating agency Standards and Poors had angered Rowley and caused him to "shoot the messenger." Roget had said the downgrading was proof that Petrotrin's refinery should not have been closed.

Both Roget and general secretary of the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) Michael Anisette, dubbed the descriptive as “pot calling kettle black.”

Roget said if any one holds that distinction, it is the Prime Minister who gave up six seats in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) for one because he did not want to share power with the PDP.

He said the decision to host Taste of Carnival was more like "Taste of dotishness" when covid19 was raging and Government was threatening workers jobs if they did not take the jab.

Roget dismissed as “blatant lies” other pronouncements Rowley made on Saturday, including a 20 per cent offer for workers to own stocks and shares in the restructured company.

He also said there was no truth to Rowley’s claim that two OWTU representatives – David Abdulah and Gregory Marchan – who were appointed to the Lashely evaluation committee to assess and make recommendations on Petrotrin, had “dropped off” the committee when confronted with what they had to do.

He said Abdulah and Marchan presented the final report of the Lashley Committee to the Prime Minister.

At the press conference, Roget also showed video clips that he claimed demonstrated that Rowley had "flipped flopped" on several issues, including his statement that Government was not shutting down Petrotrin and others regarding e-mailgate in which Rowley accused the former Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of conspiracy.