Another death blow to the

Nov 28, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
There are some serious double standards going on. Dr. Roger Luncheon’s response to the strike by the bauxite workers for increased wages is to talk about mature decision-making, Government understanding the global crisis, RUSAL finances and other bauxite companies around the world are closing their doors and walking away.
The doctor cannot name the bauxite companies since it’s all in his head and talk is cheap. RUSAL has not released its finances so no one knows whether they can afford to pay or not.
Sugar is catching hell all over the world and with the loss of preferential markets other Caribbean countries have scaled back on production, closed the industry or diversify. Not so in Guyana.
The PPP did the exact opposite by borrowing more and plunging millions of US dollars into the industry for pure political reasons. This cannot be mature decision-making with the global market forces crashing down around sugar a while back and GuySuCo’s balance sheets in the red.
In spite of all this the sugar workers went on strike for a 10 percent increase and Government and PPP stood by their side with their silence. They left Errol Hanoman to fend for himself and reel out GuySuCo’s statistics to support the claim of the company’s inability to pay.
GAWU even tried to make Hanoman out as a liar and their bosses did not even come to his defence as much the hard facts were evident. Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir moved post haste to settle the dispute.
Enter bauxite and Government talking cheap and taking the side of the Russians. This country needs an industrial court. Government is encouraging RUSAL to get away with insolence.
They cannot be entering into an agreement with the union for terms of resumption and sacking workers at the same time. This is pure foolishness. With Government coming to the defence of RUSAL they are giving hint to the Russians that they are on their side and to hell with the bauxite workers and opposition forces. How dare them challenge the children of communism. This is racism and ideological loyalty under the guise of economic viability to serve another death blow to the bauxite community.
Why aren’t the PNC and AFC down in Aroaima and KK with those workers? Those workers are their supporters. They should be on the picket line talking to them, offering counsel and lending support. Both parties have lawyers in their leadership. Are they blind to what RUSAL is doing, what Luncheon is saying or too caught up with themselves to care.
Those workers need more than industrial support; they need legal and political support for heaven’s sake. In other countries the party leader, parliamentarian or congressman would have already been out there with the workers. They couldn’t afford not to because elections have consequences. In Guyana, not so!
Lincoln Lewis, this is another one for you, my man. Keep calling it as it is. The PPP Government is not working class. Government is watching out for its own and the opposition too lazy to even get it. This is beyond what a writer called being, “constrained by the psychology of wrongness.” This is incompetence, pure and simple.
Albert Thompson

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