President general of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), Ancel Roget, yesterday signalled the intention of trade unions to up the pressure on issues affecting the labour movement. “The country is going to feel the brunt of the trade union movement, the likes of which they have not seen for quite a while,” Roget said. He made the comment before a meeting at the Rienzi Complex, Couva, with Joint Trade Union leaders to discuss “sensitive issues.”
He added: “We have a particular agenda and specific strategies towards achieving that agenda. We have some highly sensitive issues to discuss at this point of time. “We will not make all of them public, except to say the workers’ agenda has been pushed to the back-burner while we see all kinds of politicking taking place and so on.”
However, Roget made it clear the labour movement was not interested in teaming up with the United National Congress, People’s National Movement or Independent Liberal Party. He said: “We want to make a bold statement here this evening.
“If we didn’t say anything at all, we will not be wooed by any red, yellow or green, and especially green, where green these days represents not just green in politics but a level of greed and so on, where the same person, Jack Warner, would have been identified with breaking down strike camps and we hold very dearly and passionately issues of strike camps and so on.”
He said the discussions were expected to go into last night but it was the unions’ intention to have their say. “Workers must have a day and we insist that it must happen and it will happen soon,” he added.