Oilfield Workers Trade Union president general Ancel Roget has taken supporters of the People’s National Movement to task for what he called their hypocrisy.
He accused them of failing to speak out against Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s decision to accept a hefty pay increase which was recommended by the Salaries Review Commission for Parliamentarians and other top officials. Roget was speaking at the Pointe-a-Pierre Roundabout on November 30, following a march to mark the sixth anniversary of Petrotrin’s closure.
Members of the union also said a one-minute prayer in silence for the four divers who were killed in the Paria tragedy on February 25, 2022.
Using expletives to describe Rowley as lazy, Roget accused him of failing to ensure citizens had a decent standard of living.
“Having fall down the job you taking for yourself a hefty increase, but those who work you send them home and you now have their pension in jeopardy, their medical plan in jeopardy. You flying out to get the best medical attention.”
The union leader also lashed out at supporters of the ruling PNM Government. He said if any other prime minister had told citizens to tighten their belts and had accepted the pay hike, “this place would have been upside down.”
“But such is the hypocrisy of people. Such is the racial divide of the people that they refuse to call a spade of spade,” he claimed.
Roget said the trade union and its members will be hitting the streets to show their disgust, and will not accept a four per cent increase for workers.
“If you allow them to get away with that and get away with that, the salary increase, then not even crapaud smoke your pipe, tadpole will smoke your pipe, anything that could smoke your pipe will smoke your pipe.”
On Friday scores of angry workers led by the OWTU protested the Prime Minister’s decision to accept the recommendation for the salary hike for himself and other top officials. The protest took place outside the Diplomatic Centre, the Prime Minister’s official residence.
On December 7, JTUM is expected to lead a march outside Whitehall in another protest against the salary hike.
