Even as Prime Minister Kamla Persad-­Bissessar announced the establishment of a Government committee to explore strategies for the reopening of the former Petrotrin refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre, she told hundreds of workers gathered at yesterday’s Labour Day rally in Fyzabad that she was one of them and not part of the “1%”.

Addressing several thousand people at the 88th anniversary of the modern trade uni­on movement at Charlie King Junction, the Prime Minister recounted her own working-­class upbringing to express solidarity with the crowd.

“I am not the 1%. I am one of you. I have come just like you from the working class, Sometimes no working class—because we had no jobs. I understand what it is because I’ve been there and done that,” she said.