(photo by Rishi Ragoonath).
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad--Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget is rejecting Prime Minister (PM) Dr. Keith Rowley’s offer of the sale of Petrotrin refinery to the union, as well as the attractive severance and early retirement packages for workers over fifty who will be affected by the impending shutdown.
In an immediate response to Rowley’s address to the nation Sunday evening, Roget said the union felt “vindicated” by the PM’s words.
“We are vindicated because we knew that the plan was to sell the refinery,” Roget said.
However, he said the union never wanted to own the refinery.
“We are patriots and we know that the refinery belongs to the people. It does not belong in the hands of a private owner, even if that owner is the union,” he said.
The union, with support from almost 20 other trade unions, was expected to deliver a letter to Rowley on Monday offering an alternative plan of action for the refinery.
In a tele¬vi¬sion in¬ter¬view Sunday evening as well, Ro¬get al¬so ques¬tioned some of the fig¬ures quot¬ed by Row¬ley and promised that he would be chal¬leng¬ing them in the up-com¬ing days. He added that Row¬ley’s claims that the union had re¬fused to meet with gov¬ern¬ment were un¬true and in¬sist¬ed that there should be pub¬lic con¬sul¬ta¬tions on Petrotrin’s fu¬ture, specif¬i¬cal¬ly on the de¬ci¬sion to shut down the re¬fin¬ery.
Al¬so com¬ment¬ing Sunday evening was for¬mer En¬er¬gy Min¬is¬ter Kevin Ram¬nar¬ine, who said he strong¬ly be¬lieved noth¬ing was wrong with con¬sid¬er¬ing a pub¬lic-pri¬vate part¬ner¬ship ap¬proach to the re¬fin¬ery go¬ing for¬ward.
Say¬ing the re¬fin¬ery re¬mains a strate¬gic as¬set, Ram¬nar¬ine said a num¬ber of the plants that had been built as part of the Gaso¬line Op¬ti¬misa¬tion Pro¬gramme were still rel¬a¬tive¬ly new and had been com¬plet¬ed in 2013. He added that the Cat Crack¬er had been up-grad¬ed and that work had been com¬plet¬ed in 2014 and cer¬ti¬fied by Lloyd’s, so gov¬ern-ment could find a com¬pa¬ny will¬ing to take over the re¬fin¬ery.
“I think it is pos¬si¬ble to find rep¬utable com¬pa¬nies with the req¬ui¬site cap¬i¬tal and ex¬per-tise who will be will¬ing to part¬ner with the gov¬ern¬ment to make the re¬fin¬ery vi¬able,” Ram¬nar¬ine said.
“Al¬so, as I have in¬di¬cat¬ed, there will be an im¬pact on the con¬trac¬tors and the en¬er¬gy ser¬vice com¬pa¬nies that de¬pend¬ed on the ex¬pen¬di¬ture of the re¬fin¬ery to sup¬port their busi¬ness.”
Ram¬nar¬ine spec¬u¬lat¬ed that more would be heard on the is¬sue in the com¬ing weeks and in the up¬com¬ing bud¬get de¬bate. ~ Trinidad Guardian ~
