Latest update January 13th, 2025 3:10 AM
Latest News
- Oil deal requires Govt. to formally write Exxon to request renegotiation – Dr. Adams
- Govt. eyeing another US$1.5B loan from US EXIM Bank
- Israeli siege of north Gaza leaves 5,000 dead, missing after 100 days
- More traffic cops using bodycams after Hicken’s warning
- Second terminal for CJIA on govt’s 2025 agenda
Workforce represents large voting population – Chand
Komal Chand
– Union boss urges workers to call on parties to outline pertinent policies
With over 80 percent of the voting population being the working class and their family members, the upcoming general elections should serve as an ideal opportunity for workers to call on the contesting parties to outline and articulate positions and policies that address their general interests and concerns.
According to Komal Chand, Vice President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) and President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), such expectations should be based not simply on the voting numbers, important as it is, but more so on the knowledge that the working people constitute the power that drives the engine of growth that make plans, both small and grand, into realities.
“For us Guyanese, 2011, will be another significant year. This year, national and regional elections are constitutionally due. In a matter of months they will, expectedly, be held…GAWU takes the view, too, that the Guyanese working people should also play a vigorous role in ensuring that our elections are free and fair, that the democracy which was returned in 1992 is not undermined and the elections’ campaign and the elections are conducted in a conflict-free atmosphere and issues are discussed in a democratic way, even if spiritedly.”
He pointed out that since in 1993 efforts were made to rebuild and lift Guyana from the pits of stagnation and place it on a path of steady progress. The indicators of the achievements made, he said, are visible in the form of health, education, pensions, the physical infrastructure, housing construction, reach of water, electricity services, goods, inclusive governance, and the reduction of national debt.
These improvements, he added, came about not without strains and stresses, adding that in spite of the many challenges, in the past 17 years, a foundation has been set on which efforts can be sustained to build a new prosperous Guyana.
“While the strides made have raised to a higher level the working-people’s quality of life, we cannot ignore those ugly features of our society which would not go away despite strenuous efforts.
Here, we must draw attention to the troubling issue of crime, violence against women, prevalence of illicit drugs and its use and the gun violence it breeds, the perception of widespread corruption, among others.”
These negative features, according to Chand, tend to overshadow the country’s gains and, at the same time, act as restraints to further economic growth.”
The Union leader underscored, too, that over the past year all did not go well with respect to labour and trade unionism, noting that “two of our productive industries have had to contend with measures which could be deemed anti-labour and against established trade union practices. Strangely, these measures were taken at the recently re-privatized and foreign-owned bauxite and at the state-owned sugar industries but certainly not limited to them.”
In recent times, the several contentious issues that have arisen in the sugar industry have “badly muddied the industrial relations atmosphere within the industry,” Chand said, adding that “there is a level of discontent among the workforce.”
As a result, he said that GAWU is concerned over this development, since it is possible that new assaults on trade unionism can well be in the making.
According to him, given the plans and the juncture the industry is at, “one wonders what lies behind such measures and what agenda is really being
served.” For this reason, he disclosed that GAWU reflects, with much concern, the provocative threat just months ago to derecognise the Union.
“Needless of the fact, that recognition was won over 35 years ago in arduous struggle spanning three decades. That threat was not pursued thanks to the intervention of President Jagdeo. The Union is puzzled that an attempt, to what in effect would have amounted to sabotage of the industry… nothing is being done to expose and strongly discipline the culprit or culprits who may be guilty. This we find to be very interesting and inaction may tell its own tale.”
Further, he noted that GAWU is of the belief that the present administration will not condone such a threat, thus in a situation of inaction by GuySuCo, the union is suggesting that President Bharrat Jagdeo considers intervening in this matter.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Social media reporting is a double-edged sword
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Social media has undoubtedly changed how we share and receive information. It has made... more
Clarifying misconceptions about the Panama Canal
Sir Ronald Sanders (Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the OAS) By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News–... more
Weekend Cartoon
