Guardian ( Trinidad and Tobago )
02 May 2023 ( Page 8 )
Roget wants a new Fyzabad Declaration
RADHICA DE SILVA - RADHICASOOKRAJ@GUARDIAN.CO.TT
A resounding call has been made for all retrenched, dismissed and exploited
workers across T&T to join Labour Day celebrations in Fyzabad this year
where a new Declaration for Workers will be made.
The call was made by the president-general of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade
Union, Ancel Roget, as he led workers from 20 trade unions in a May Day
march through the streets of San Fernando on Monday.
Speaking at Harris Promenade, Roget chastised the PNM Government, led by
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, saying he was a “different kind of PNM,”
not like his predecessors Dr Eric Williams, George Chambers and Patrick
Manning.
OWTU president-general Ancel Roget addresses workers at the end of the
May Day march at Harris Promenade, San Fernando, yesterday.
PICTURE KRISTIAN DE SILVA
“I want to call on all depressed communities. Let June 19th 2023 be a day of
reckoning. To all workers who are dismissed, many thousands... over
100,000 workers sent home by this government, join us for Labour Day,” he
said.
Roget said a new declaration will be made in Fyzabad once there are
sufficient numbers.
The last Fyzabad Declaration, which gave birth to the People’s Partnership
Government, had been signed on April 21, 2010.
This was a month before Kamla Persad-Bissessar became the first female
prime minister of T&T. The 2010 Declaration was signed by the UNC,
Congress of the People, Tobago Organisation for the People, National Joint
Action Committee and the labour-based party the Movement for Social
Justice.
However, when the MSJ pulled out of the People’s Partnership, MSJ’s
political leader David Abdulah said the Fyzabad Declaration was null and void
as the UNC did not uphold its principles.
Roget did not reveal any details of the new Declaration but noted that
something had to be done to get rid of the “wicked, spiteful and disgusting
PNM.”
He also blamed the Dr Keith Rowley government for facilitating worker
exploitation.
“This government believes it could tax citizens even as it abdicates its
responsibility to ensure the safety of citizens. This is the most anti-worker
government this country has ever seen,” declared Roget.
He said the benefits achieved from May Day which included an eight-hour
workday, were slowly being eroded by unscrupulous employers in T&T.
“Migrant workers come here looking for a better life but yet we have
employers who are working them for 12 to 15 hours and paying them less
than minimum wage,” Roget said.
“We call on you, all interested groups, all suffering masses to join us in
Fyzabad where we want to make another declaration in Fyzabad.
But we need you to come out in your numbers,” he said.
Roget noted that all institutions of the State had collapsed.
“There is no justice, the court is under-resourced. Employers believe they
could continue to divide and rule,” Roget said, noting that nobody could say
their lives have improved under the PNM since 2015.”
He added: “This country is in a state of war by the criminals against the lawabiding citizens but they are being helped by this incompetent Keith Rowley
government.”
He said the Crime symposium attended by Caricom leaders was nothing
more than a PR stunt.
“These Caribbean leaders who allowed themselves to be duped into a
massive PR campaign, while they are talking about crime, people continue to
die, criminals continue to break down the door of your home and do as they
please,” he said.
The primary responsibility of any government is to maintain the safety of its
citizens but this government has failed, he added.
Roget said criminals continue to maim and kill law-abiding citizens while
the police grapple with a lack of basic resources.
Photo: OWTU president-general Ancel Roget addresses workers at the end of the
May Day march at Harris Promenade, San Fernando, yesterday.
PICTURE KRISTIAN DE SILVA