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  • 1 year ago


The Oilfields Workers Trade Union observes the six year anniversary of the closure of Petrotrin with a webinar which recognized the closure as the worst decision taken in present day T&T.
Transcript
00:00It has been six years since the country's only refinery was shut down.
00:05The representing union, the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union, still faces much criticism for
00:11inaction.
00:12We took the company to court on the basis of that signed and registered memoranda of
00:21agreement dated April 3rd that there should be restructuring and that the fact that they
00:28neglected to engage in that restructuring and move on and move to close the company,
00:36we took the company to court and we won that matter.
00:41The political leader of the Movement for Social Justice says the closure was an unforgivable
00:47transgression against the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
00:51With respect to the refinery, as contrary to the Prime Minister's statement and Minister
00:59Young's statement that the petrochain was losing four US dollars for every barrel of
01:04oil it refined, that was not true.
01:06The fact of the matter is that the gross margin of petrochain was nine US a barrel and even
01:16after the payment of loans was US $1.20 per barrel.
01:21The closure, the back and forth, became a war for words with authorities responsible
01:26for it shutting down defending their decision.
01:29Former Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine says one of the greatest untruths is that Petrotrin
01:35was a ward of the state.
01:36I remember hearing one journalist go on the radio and talk about the government having
01:41to pump money into Petrotrin and the journalist in question used the word pump and it was
01:47very annoying to hear that kind of language.
01:50Of course, fishermen and friends of the sea, they did a freedom of information request
01:56to the Ministry of Finance and the reply from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of
02:01Finance showed that Petrotrin had received no subventions from the Ministry of Finance
02:07or the government or the treasury from 2016 to its closure.
02:12And present day problems may very well be linked to that decision taken six years prior
02:18according to a former finance minister.
02:21Now people are saying, wait a minute, we don't have foreign exchange and we were blaming
02:27Petrotrin.
02:28But Petrotrin had their own foreign exchange.
02:32Is it there or not?
02:33They were actually contributing foreign exchange to this country.
02:37Our foreign exchange situation is a total mismanagement of our economy.
02:42And years later, the union says it is still fighting against the rhetoric perpetuated
02:48by the government.
02:49They demonize the Petrotrin workers, they demonize good paying jobs, they demonize the
02:57breadwinner, the breadbasket of Trinidad and Tobago, and they join with those silent
03:04voices, those who were in the different areas and people on the East West Corridor who don't
03:10know anything about the refinery and Petrotrin or so, they've joined with the Prime Minister,
03:17he rallied support, the closure of this very important entity.
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