Two former energy ministers yesterday commented on the looming threat of a strike at Petrotrin, with both Conrad Enill and Kevin Ramnarine agreeing that T&T cannot afford a strike at this time.
Enill called on all parties—the company’s board, the government and the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU)—to come to an amicable settlement before union president Ancel Roget serves a strike notice on the state-owned company tomorrow, while Kevin Ramnarine said that based on state owned Petrotrin’s financial position they cannot afford to give a salary increases at this time.
Enill, who served as energy minister between 2007 and 2010, said the only thing the country would face if Petrotrin shuts down its workforce were negatives and pain, as citizens, the protective services and businesses would face major disruptions and trauma.
“I do not believe at this point the country should face that activity given the economic challenges. I think what should occur is that the company should sit with the union and work out the issues.
“We cannot continue in Trinidad and Tobago striking for everything. And we can’t continue at the same time, in not listening to what is taking place.
“We all went to school to learn things. We all should understand that if the prices of oil and gas have been reduced dramatically it means we do not have the revenues as we had before.”
Coming out of this issue should be a win-win situation for all, Enill said.
“Whatever happens it should be a negotiated settlement without putting the people of the country through pain. It is going to be painful.”
Enill said the ones to suffer the most would be the poor.
He said before the PNM came into office they had a relationship with Roget.
“They were able to sit down around a table and talk about national issues. That is what is required at this point in time. I think that somebody has to take the country’s leadership and try to resolve this issue in the shortest possible time. It cannot be that the only time you will deal with the matter is when you start to hurt people. That makes no sense.”
If this matter is not addressed in a timely fashion, Enill said the ramifications could be devastating.
“In the first instance this can shut down the country. If people can’t move freely from one place to the other... then you have two things happening, you have the whole transportation sub sector not being able transport good and services. It means you are going to have shortages (of goods) which can trigger price increases. There is a whole series of activities that can occur as result of not being able to move in the country because there is no fuel.”
Enill said in his view all this was “negatives.”
While the Government had the ability to get the army to operate Petrotrin’s refinery as a contingency plan, Enill said this was not a good use of resources.
“If we have a crime problem in the country then military resources should be able to deal with that.”
However, Enill said if the strike takes place it would become a national security issue.
“Because you are going to have a situation in the society where even the military may not be able to be transported and go where they need to go....therefore they are going to have to deal with it as though it is a threat.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Ramnarine, who served as energy minister from 2011 to 2015, said that based on state-owned Petrotrin’s financial position they cannot afford to give a salary increases at this time.
“I am saying that the financial position of the company cannot justify an increase in wages,” he told the Guardian yesterday.
Ramnarine had given statistics to show that Petrotrin’s revenue fell from TT$ 29 billion in 2014 to TT $16 billion in 2016.
This comes at a time where oil production in T&T has been falling and enegry prices globally have fallen to their lowest in decades.
The Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) had given Petrotrin an ultimatum to settle negotiations with the union or there will be a shutadown of the company.
Ancel Roget, OWTU’s Secretary General speaking at a media conference last week said that the strike action would not only be aimed at the company but also at the Government.
Petrotrin has offered zero-zero-zero percent increase to the oil union for the 2011 to 2014 period.
Fitzroy Harewood, President of Petrotrin in a letter to employees had said: It also goes without saying that the company’s financial losses will be greater due to the loss of revenue expected during the period of a strike”
Ramnarine suggested that future wage increases be tied to performance.
“They need to link future increases in wages to improvements in performance of the company measured by increased oil production and increased refinery output and efficiency,” he said.
Ramnarine added that if OWTU and Petrotrin do not come to an agreement and they decide to take industrial action there should be “contingency plans” in place.
“There are established contingencies at Petrotrin, National Petroleum (NP) and Unipet to ensure the delivery of fuel to the country.”