Roger declares war; soldiers to drive petroleum tankers

Ancel Roget leads OWTU members, carrying bamboo poles to build a strike camp at Pointe a Pierre

Government Senator and Leader of the Movement for Social Justice David Abdullah on Tuesday signed a notice declaring "90 days of war".

The reference was to the strike notice filed by The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) on state-owned Petrotrin.

Hundreds of workers accompanied OWTU president general Ancel Roget to deliver the strike to Kenneth Allum, president of Petrotrin.  

The union has set saturday as the day the strike will begin. If it goes ahead, all of Petrotrin’s exploration and production, refinery and marine operations will be shut down. That would likely lead to a shortage of fuel supplies for local use and for export.

Government has given the assurance that citizens will continue to get supplies of fuel although Roget has warned the population to be prepared for shortages.

The Government has finalised plans to use members of the T&T Defence Force to drive fuel-distribution wagons. It also plans to import fuel to meet domestic needs.

Roget agreed to meet Labour Minister Errol McLeod “out of respect”. However the union leader and former labour colleague of McLeod said "the time for talk is over.” 

Roget is determined to inflict harm. “This is war! A strike is meant to hurt," he told workers. 

He added, "The employer is hurting you by not giving a decent wage. Prepare yourself and forget about wasting money on Carnival. Prepare to play mas long after Ash Wednesday,” he told a large gathering of workers. 

He advised them not to break the law and at the same time warned security personnel not to suppress striking workers. 

Roget called the strike to demand more than the five per cent final offer the company has made. He is insisting that he is asking for a fair deal. “We are asking for not one cent more than we deserve and we will accept not one cent less than we deserve," he said. “We have had 55 bilateral sessions and the time for talk done.” 

The OWTU leader repeated his challenge to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, saying she would pay "the ultimate political price". 

Roget also denied that his union is holding out for a 75 per cent wage increase although he admitted that was the figure it wanted at the start of negotiations with the energy company.