The death of trade unionism

Dec 07, 2010 Editorial

It must be that the trade unions are becoming redundant. Unless they are in negotiations with private organisations they simply seem to be unable to solicit any advantage for the workers who pay their union dues and who expect to be represented by their union.
It has not escaped notice that the unions themselves may have contributed to their redundancy, simply because they appeared to have divorced themselves from the general membership. Some of them have all but disappeared.
For example the Printing Industries and Allied Workers Union, the Manpower Citizens Association, the Association of Masters and Mistresses, and even the Guyana Bauxite Supervisors Union have all but disappeared except on paper. They came into existence for a specific purpose and when that purpose no longer existed the union simply ceased to function.
For example the senior masters and senior mistresses of schools no longer need a union to represent their interests. They are beyond representation except in a court of law as is the case of Ms Genevieve Whyte-Nedd. Their fortunes are left solely to the Teaching Service Commission.
The Guyana Public Service union is perhaps the second largest trade union in Guyana. In 1999 it represented every public servant, including the nurses who at that time were perhaps the largest constituent. That was the year when the cry was for a significant pay increase. The strike was effective because with the nurses in the forefront, the union managed to maintain its militancy, right down to shutting down the wharves and thus affecting the imports.
When the union reached an agreement to end the strike it appeared not to have taken the nurses into consideration with the result that the nurses, for a brief period, flirted with forming their own union. The bottom line to this day is that the union does not have the strength that it once did. It is doubtful that it can even call a strike.
For the past five years, the government has managed to sideline the GPSU by dealing directly with the workers. Every year the government unilaterally imposes a five per cent wage hike across the board much to the annoyance of the GPSU. The union said that the imposition began a few years ago when the union entered into negotiations with Government over wages and salaries.
Ever since that first imposition there has never been an agreement between the union and the government. And there is nothing the union can do to change this. The payout invariably comes at Christmas time when the people are glad for every cent they can get. And recognizing this, the union advised the people to take the money. It also promised the public servants that it would continue the negotiations.
It is unfortunate that the union, despite its potential clout, can do nothing except attempt to call a strike which is one call that its members will certain ignore. It is not insignificant that a similar situation exists in the bauxite industry to the point that the union leaders in that industry are crying racism.
They point to the relationship between the sugar union and the government. The sugar union bargains heavily for substantial increases and scarcely a year goes by without the sugar company headed by Government officials meeting with the union. Strikes are commonplace and in almost every instance the sugar workers get more than the initial sugar company proposal.
Perhaps the situation would have been different if the GPSU was as close to its members as the sugar union is to its members. The largest gain the GPSU secured for its workers was the fifty per cent increase in 1999. Initially the government had announced that it could not pay but President Bharrat Jagdeo then announced that he would honour that agreement.
This may have been the turning point in negotiations between the government and the union. So, of what purpose are the trade unions? Perhaps they are as good as the influence they hold over the private organizations but at the governmental level, they appear to be useless. We may be seeing the demise of trade unionism in government institutions.

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The death of trade unionism

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