HOW ABOUT HELPING THESE WORKERS?

Oct 20, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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It is not going to be a merry Christmas for the 274 workers who have been laid off by the Barama Company. These workers are being put on the breadline just before the holidays, when most Guyanese usually need some extra cash.
The cause of the decision to sever these workers is reportedly some problems with a boiler system. That explanation in itself raises a number of questions, not the least of which is why in this modern era, a new boiler cannot be installed in a short period of time so as to avoid the scores of workers having to be laid-off. Another question is what sort of boiler is it that we are dealing with that would have such disastrous consequences.
The fact that the workers are being severed says that the problem is very serious. After all, if it was just a case of the boiler system having to be fixed, there would have been no need to put the workers out on the breadline.
A few years ago when bauxite workers were in a similar plight and had to be sent home, the government intervened and actually developed a plan to retrain laid-off workers and pay them a few months’ salaries. Some of them were promised training grants to undertake computer studies.
Could a similar thing not be done in this instance as a demonstration of the working class credentials of the ruling administration? This is not five or ten workers that we are dealing with. This is two hundred and seventy-four workers, many of whom would have families and now face the prospects of a bleak Christmas.
The government may be mindful of not establishing a precedent whereby it may have to intervene in all cases where workers are severed from their jobs. After all no one expects the government to get involved in private matters.  But it does have a precedent for such action as it did in the case of the bauxite workers a few years back. Just as how it helped the bauxite workers then, it should as a working class government consider what it can do for the present workers.
The company should also consider that it is through the workers that it makes profits and while retaining the workers may cut into its profits, a satisfied and grateful workforce would be good for production and productivity whenever the factory gets back on its feet. Workers will remember that in the hard times, the bosses stood by their side and that the company took losses just to ensure that no one was put on the breadline.
There is the possibility also that what we are witnessing may just be the tip of the iceberg. Is it a case whereby production of plywood is going to be halted for an extended period? If this is the case, then the effects are going to be felt beyond the factory floor; they are going to extend to the harvesting operations, which means many others may be affected. This is a matter of grave concern, because Barama was originally licensed to operate in Guyana in order to produce plywood. Tax and other concessions were given to that company not just to say that we have an interested investor but also in order to create jobs. Thus, when two hundred and seventy-four jobs are lost, it must be asked of what future benefit is the company to Guyana.
One of the problems that the government faces is what to do with companies who are in the timber industry and who have been forced by circumstances to curtail its downstream processing activities.
As we know, a number of timber companies were allowed to export logs. It is not clear if this applies in the case of Barama, but the overall decision made a mockery of all the pretensions by the government about downstream processing.
The exportation of logs should be banned. It would be terrible if in light of these job losses, the government still permits the exportation of logs. Those who wish to come to this country to extract our resources need to understand that what is critical to our economy is the creation of jobs. If these jobs are not being created and maintained, then the investments no longer serve our interests. We should discourage the exportation of logs since this means that foreign workers benefit from the processing that should rightly take place here.
As such, the government needs to get involved with this problem with the boiler system at Barama. It needs to ensure that the factory is up and running as soon as possible.
In the meantime, it may consider tidying over those laid-off workers at least until after the Christmas holidays. Surely that cannot be asking too much of a working class government that sunk millions into redoing a sewage line to facilitate a hotel, or is sinking three billion into a road for a hydropower project. If it can do these things for foreign investors, how about doing something in the short-term for less than three hundred workers who are facing the axe.

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