By Sue-Ann Wayow
“DOTISH” labour leaders are leading workers astray, declared Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Saturday.
Stressing he was not against the working class, Dr Rowley said workers would have been in a much better position if they did not follow the advice of their union leaders.
He said, “What is amazing is that people follow these people… and I know that this will be put across as anti-labour. I am not anti-labour, labour has brought good and improved conditions for workers around the world all the time. What I am against is dotish labour leaders who are leading workers astray.”
He was speaking during a People’s National Movement (PNM) meeting at Success Laventille Secondary School.
Lambasting a labour leader who he did not refer to by name, Dr Rowley said he noted that a particular person was “cheering” that Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Ltd (TPHL) had been downgraded by international credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P).
The prime minister said at least the downgrade was for that particular company and not the entire country and despite all the criticism from the representing unions, the energy sector continued to be productive.
Last Wednesday, S&P downgraded TPHL from a rating from BB to B+ reasons given as the tight maturity profile of upcoming debt payments and TPHL’s failure to report its 2019 audited financial statements.
Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) president Ancel Roget had claimed that the downgrade showed that the restructuring of Petrotrin was not a wise decision, something the union had fought to prevent.
Dr Rowley said Petrotrin would have lost some $5 billion in about five years if restructuring did not occur.
He said, “Having to import every day 120,000 barrels of oil and as they refine it, they would be losing between US $5 and US $7 per day, per barrel. This country had to restructure that business.”
Dr Rowley added that the restructured subsidiary Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd, recorded a profit of $1.4 billion in 2019 and now has a $3.6 billion profit while also paying US million – dollar the debt Petrotrin had incurred. At the time, Petrotrin was owing US$850 million which had to be paid at a set date.
Saying that he observed a “most pitiful sight and sound” on the Saturday night news of a union leader “cheering the fact that Petrotrin has been downgraded,” he has Prime Minister had to make a hard decision in the best interest of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Prime Minister said, “So, when the cheer was going up for the downgrade, what the individual didn’t know… instead of Petrotrin being downgraded, had we done nothing about restructuring Petrotrin, it would have been Trinidad and Tobago that would have been downgraded.
“So instead of downgrading the entire country, where the Minister of Finance and the entire national borrowing would have been affected, the downgrade is only on Petrotrin, the debt is being serviced by the company and not by the Minister of Finance…had this Government not had the testicular fortitude to restructure the Petrotrin, what would have been our situation today?”
Dr Rowley also said that the Government was prepared to offer former employees as much as possible upon the announcement of the restructuring even stocks in the new company but because of their union leaders, they refuse to accept the offer.
“I, as Prime Minister, was prepared then to offer as much and encouraged the Cabinet to offer them up to 20 % of the new company. And had they accepted that offer, they would have been owners of 20 %of that $3.6 billion. But they had no faith, no confidence—and as a result of that, their leaders led them (astray),” he said.
Also referring to the United National Congress (UNC), Dr Rowley said a similar situation occurred when
State bank First Citizens shares were available on the market for the first time and workers would have been able to potentially be owners of the bank but because of their union leaders, they had refused.
