What plans does the GTUC President have for addressing our problems?

Jan 05, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,

I refer to the article “No cooperation within the GTUC in 2008 –President,” in Kaieteur News, 1/1/2009.

In January 2008, this newspaper carried my letter congratulating Ms. Gillian Burton on her election to the Presidency of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC). In that letter, I asked Ms. Burton: “If she identifies with the workers’ plight, and what she plans to do to confront the situation and change the rising anger?”

Exactly one year after, despite many letters to the President, there has been no response. So, it is good to hear the President in 2009. Again, the President refuses to address the concerns of workers, other than inform on proposed financial investments in CLICO and the GTUC Boardroom. These economic plans, though admirable, are intended to generate revenue for the GTUC. They are not policies to advance the workers’ day-to-day cause in the workplace and wider society. President Burton speaks about “her vision for the movement,” but did not expand on a vision for the workers’ welfare. Workers are making their economic contributions through union dues, and want to hear the plans these dues are supposed to ensure.

Workers are the ones keeping the economy alive through taxation. As a public servant on a meagre income, I pay 33.3% PAYE, 16% VAT, residential rates and taxes, motor vehicle taxes, utilities taxes, and other miscellaneous taxes. Ms. Burton should know these facts. Ms. Burton thinks it is “handouts” when workers demand (as I and others have done) the Government return some of our tax dollars to the GTUC and Critchlow Labour College. Workers’ money returned to them through institutions or projects is not “handouts,” President Burton; it is returning to workers what are duly theirs’. Some of our tax dollars are given to FITUG, GAWU and others; so, too, must some be given to GTUC and Critchlow. I trust Guyana’s President Jagdeo and TUC’s President Burton appreciate this logic.

Ms. Burton has to stand or fall on her record. In trade unionism, equality prescribes relationship between persons and organisations, and negotiating skills are the pride of trade unionists. Discrimination based on ageism and gender bias has no place in the unions. The president, in her own words in SN 28/11/2007, said: “Gender difference do not matter that much in the labour movement,” and she does not want to be defined by her gender. In 2009, Ms. Burton invokes gender discrimination for not getting anything done in 2008. The trade union leadership is dominated by men. These men voted for Ms. Burton. In one instance, Ms. Burton encourages age discrimination by saying older leaders “need to step aside,” in the other, she ignores the dominant male environment that elected her.

President Burton should give workers one change she proposed for them that other TUC leaders discarded. I recall SN Guyana Review 28/11/2007 the President saying: “The solution lies with the workers themselves.” Rest assured that, should workers be given information about leaders who opposed progress, they will hear from us.

Since Ms. Burton’s “Coming in from the cold” article (2007), the plight of workers has worsened. Correspondingly is our anger over the situation and inactions by our leaders. Prices have skyrocketed; floods wreak havoc on lives and properties; blackouts and water shortages increase; bus fares and fuel prices have increased; real wages and working conditions have declined; poverty has increased, with 80% of public servants living below the poverty line; there is intensification of marginalisation and disregard for the rule of law; garbage has pile up; Le Repentir Cemetery has become an impassable forest. The list goes on and on.

Again, I ask President Burton If she identifies with us, and what are her plans to address the problems confronting us? A response from Ms. Burton would be appreciated; not Samantha Ali, as has been previous approaches.

Martin Roberts

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What plans does the GTUC President have for addressing our problems?

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