However the PNM leader's political posturing has not impressed labour. On Friday, the President General of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) said he doesn't need Rowley's hand of friendship.
Ancel Roget told the Newsday newspaper it was the previous PNM government led by Patrick Manning that attempted to terrorise the labour movement.
He said the Manning PNM administration tried to decertify two trade unions and “brutalised workers” during an axe-the-tax march outside the Red House. “There was never a bigger attack on the labour movement than the attack by the PNM," Roget said.
In 2009, the PNM government tried to decertify the Transport and Industrial Workers Union and the Communications Workers Union.
“This is the same PNM that is now saying it is a friend of labour that brutalised our members and arrested the union’s general secretary during an axe the tax march and it was the same PNM that is now saying it is a friend of labour, which attempted to send home over 2,000 Petrotrin workers by trying to merge five state-owned companies into a mega company.
“So this phrase that they are our friend all of a sudden is something that we are very wary of. The PNM does not have a good track record when it comes to dealing with labour,” Roget said.
He reminded the paper that the labour movement has not invited any politician to Sunday's labour day celebrations in Fyzabad.
“No politician has been invited because we want to focus on workers’ issues and workers’ rights,” he said.
The labour movement made an exception with Labour Minister and chairman of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) Errol McLeod and Government Senator David Abdullah.
However McLeod is attending an International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference in Geneva and won't be in Fyzabad Sunday. Abdullah has been invited in his role as OWTU general secretary.
In 2009, the PNM government tried to decertify the Transport and Industrial Workers Union and the Communications Workers Union.
“This is the same PNM that is now saying it is a friend of labour that brutalised our members and arrested the union’s general secretary during an axe the tax march and it was the same PNM that is now saying it is a friend of labour, which attempted to send home over 2,000 Petrotrin workers by trying to merge five state-owned companies into a mega company.
“So this phrase that they are our friend all of a sudden is something that we are very wary of. The PNM does not have a good track record when it comes to dealing with labour,” Roget said.
He reminded the paper that the labour movement has not invited any politician to Sunday's labour day celebrations in Fyzabad.
“No politician has been invited because we want to focus on workers’ issues and workers’ rights,” he said.
The labour movement made an exception with Labour Minister and chairman of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) Errol McLeod and Government Senator David Abdullah.
However McLeod is attending an International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference in Geneva and won't be in Fyzabad Sunday. Abdullah has been invited in his role as OWTU general secretary.
No comments:
Post a Comment