DOES OWTU STILL HAVE POLITICAL CLOUT?

OILFIELDS Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), once the most militant labour body in the region, has returned to the political arena in a big way.

OWTU operatives are campaigning for two anti-People’s National Movement (PNM) political parties – United National Congress (UNC) and Movement for Social Justice (MSJ).

MSJ is a virtual “house party” of OWTU, led by serial campaigner David Abdulah, a long-time union official.

The party was a unit of the 2010 People’s Partnership administration, of which UNC was the main player.

At OWTU leader Ancel Roget’s demands, MSJ withdrew from the ruling regime in 2012 and returned as a splinter party with minuscule public support.

Roget led his colleagues in infamously dragging a mannequin on public streets caricaturing then-Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

On the eve of the 2015 general election, the union had a public dalliance with PNM’s Dr. Keith Rowley, securing promises of a better deal for the working class.

But after eight years in national office, the working masses have seen their quality of life collapse to 40-year lows.

Now, Roget has changed his political tune.

“We cannot stand aside and allow the PNM to gain … traction in any part of the country,” the union leader said, as he returned to the campaign trail.

“We are not going to stop until we remove this evil scourge that has been on this country since the PNM came into existence,” he fumed.

“For T&T to live, the PNM must die.”

That is sabre-tattling from Roget, who had made a dramatic turnaround in 2015 in embracing a traditional OWTU foe.

Now, he is grousing about the loss of workers’ jobs, denial of medical and other benefits, and the general stark reality of the poor getting poorer.

OWTU’s Pointe-a-Pierre branch – its largest and historically most powerful arm – has gone further and mounted UNC platforms.

Branch representative Christopher Jackman agonised about “where this country has come over the last five years.

“You could feel the place getting harder.

“It is like when the PNM comes into power, life just becomes harder.”

The utterances of Roget and Jackman are an awakening to the fact that the cost of living, unemployment, and other social and economic factors have badly hurt the common man.

OWTU is clearly preaching a populist message.

But does the messenger carry the credibility and authority of an earlier version of the blue-shirt brigade?

Because of the shutdown of Petrotrin and various oil servicing companies, the union now represents only a tiny wedge of its earlier large membership.

In addition, the union’s foray with PNM has cost the one-time revolutionary organisation much of its sway and standing with society.

During earlier versions of OWTU – especially the lengthy George Weekes era – there was strong mobilisation for social justice, ethnic unity, gender rights, and regional togetherness.

Weekes was strong-willed – he valiantly led the campaign for the expulsion of multinational Texaco – and eye-balled PNM administrations on issues of the day.

The political flip-flopping of the union is a blot on its long, cherished history as a champion of the underclass.

The election result would give an indication of whether the once-mighty OWTU still has political clout.