“Strike, strike, strike.” This was the resounding demand from Petrotrin workers to the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) on Monday night. OWTU president Ancel Roget, in accepting his membership’s mandate, called on citizens to bear with the workers as they fought for “betterment for ourselves and our families, betterment for our country.”
The workers, who gathered at a mass meeting at the Pointe-a-Pierre roundabout, rejected Petrotrin’s zero per cent wage offer and its claim that it was not in a financial position to offer a wage increase. Roget, in his address, said the company’s offer of zero per cent was “highly arrogant, disrespectful. That is not an offer. Put a figure and let us negotiate.”
Roget said the union remained prepared to negotiate with Petrotrin and had even reduced its proposal to 15 per cent for all six collective agreements. He asked workers three times if they were prepared to take action. The workers, with fists clenched in the air and the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery in the background, emphatically shouted: “Yes, strike, strike, strike.”
“I have always been the one to carry out the instructions,” Roget said, adding: “In due course we will inform the nation of our next move. It is better to be prepared for a tsunami, for a hurricane.” The union and Petrotrin have been holding conciliation talks on six outstanding agreements at the Ministry of Labour over the past two weeks. However, those talks failed to reach an agreement and on Friday the formal seven-day period for talks will expire.
This will pave the way for the union to serve official notice of legal strike action on Petrotrin. Roget said the workers were prepared to maintain a full three-month strike to get their “just dues.”
Roget—Intimidation will not work
On Monday night, police, led by Snr Supt Cecil Santana, kept watch over the workers and formed a barrier at the entrance to the company’s administrative building as well as around the workers. Roget did not appreciate the police presence, saying the critical manpower could have been better deployed to protect citizens especially at night when criminals were roaming. Workers, he said, would not be intimidated by the police’s show of force.
In fact, he cautioned the police against getting involved in Petrotrin’s business should the workers go on strike. “Do not do as you did in the TCL strike. Do not carry scabs into the refinery to work. That is not your job description, to pick up scabs into the refinery. Your job is to protect and serve. We caution you, advise you do not overstep your boundaries.”
Roget also warned the business community and chambers against bad-talking the OWTU when workers went on strike, and said they would boycott any business that made adverse comments. “Anyone who comes out to say one thing against us, just as you want to put us out of business, we will put you out of business. We will use our power of economics and put you out of business,” Roget said.
Roget said oil prices had nothing to do with the millions in losses the company recorded but blamed poor management.
