Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has an­nounced that for­mer Petrotrin work­ers will have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­turn to work at the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery un­der its in­com­ing op­er­a­tor, Oan­do PLC. How­ev­er, the Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) has dis­missed this as a last-minute elec­tion promise.

Ad­dress­ing a Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) meet­ing at Har­ris Prom­e­nade, San Fer­nan­do, on Wednes­day night, Young, who is al­so the Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, warned elec­tors against be­liev­ing Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and her deputy David Lee, whom he ac­cused of op­pos­ing the re­fin­ery’s re­open­ing.

“So let me put you on no­tice tonight. If we want that re­fin­ery open—be­cause let me tell you, do you know what Oan­do told us? Do you know who the work­ers for the re­fin­ery are go­ing to be? They are not bring­ing in any for­eign work­ers. It is the same work­ers who ran the re­fin­ery be­cause we have ne­go­ti­at­ed for them to use the same work­ers,” Young said.