Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

There was a con­fronta­tion be­tween po­lice of­fi­cers and the Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union (OW­TU) at the In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front yes­ter­day as mem­bers of the union gath­ered to de­liv­er a let­ter on be­half of Petrotrin re­tirees to En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young.

There were heat­ed ver­bal ex­changes and phys­i­cal con­tact out­side the Hy­att Re­gency where events mark­ing the 50th An­niver­sary of Cari­com are tak­ing place. Tem­pers flared as the po­lice of­fi­cers formed a line and at­tempt­ed to move the union mem­bers to a spe­cif­ic area.

OW­TU Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al An­cil Ro­get emerged from Tow­er C af­ter de­liv­er­ing the let­ter to find his mem­bers be­ing re­moved by the po­lice. He tried to calm the sit­u­a­tion but lat­er, when he spoke with re­porters, the crit­i­cized the po­lice ac­ton de­scrib­ing it as bul­ly­ing.

“Work­ers in this coun­try pay tax­es, which tax­es are used to pay the po­lice which the po­lice we see now is us­ing a re­pres­sive hand against the same work­ers and there­fore we call on the po­lice to ex­er­cise good and fair judg­ment and not to be bul­lies of this gov­ern­ment, to bul­ly work­ers and re­tirees who come to call for their just en­ti­tle­ment, their just en­ti­tle­ment of a med­ical plan,” he said.

“The Prime Min­is­ter, when he was ill last year, he flies out of this coun­try for the best med­ical at­ten­tion paid for by the tax­pay­ers and paid for by the same for­mer Petrotrin work­ers. So, he’s af­ford­ing him­self the best med­ical care and at­ten­tion while at the same time, he shuts down the med­ical plan that is guar­an­teed to those work­ers through terms and con­di­tions of their em­ploy­ment.”

Ro­get said the union went to hand de­liv­er a let­ter urg­ing the gov­ern­ment to with­draw an ap­peal in court that is af­fect­ing the abil­i­ty of Petrotrin re­tirees to get med­ical in­sur­ance cov­er­age.

“We are call­ing on him and his gov­ern­ment and al­so Min­is­ter Young to in­struct Petrotrin to with­draw that ap­peal which is on­ly be­ing used as a de­lay tac­tic to en­rich lawyers and at the same time to de­ny work­ers from hav­ing their day in court and there­fore get­ting the ben­e­fit of their med­ical plan,” he said.

The union mem­bers said they were plan­ning to vis­it the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and his of­fi­cial res­i­dence to press their de­mands for the ap­peal to be with­drawn.