Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who made his­to­ry in 2010 as T&T’s first fe­male Prime Min­is­ter, had an­oth­er mo­men­tous mo­ment yes­ter­day—stand­ing on the Joint Trade Union Move­ment’s (JTUM) Labour Day plat­form at Char­lie King Junc­tion in Fyz­abad.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar brought a mes­sage of hope, an­nounc­ing that she had tak­en a Cab­i­net Note to es­tab­lish a com­mit­tee to as­sess the Guaracara Re­fin­ing Com­pa­ny, to re­open the re­fin­ery.

It marked a strik­ing change in tone at Labour Day cel­e­bra­tions, where trade unions had for years lam­bast­ed the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion for the clo­sure of the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery. This year, how­ev­er, she of­fered re­as­sur­ance, re­mind­ing work­ers that her Gov­ern­ment had al­ready be­gun ful­fill­ing cam­paign promis­es.