GAWU boss’ speech upsets Jagdeo

Jun 17, 2011 News

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The annual memorial ceremony was held at the site of the monument dedicated to the five Enmore Martyrs yesterday in recognition of the brave sacrifice made by five sugar workers.
One of the pivotal reasons for the strike action that eventually resulted in the death of Lallabagee, Pooran, Rambarran, Dookhie and Harry, in 1948, was their desire to have their interests as workers represented by the Union of their choice.
As such, the presence of the Unions was an integral part of the proceedings yesterday, with two addresses by union representatives and the feature address being delivered by the President.
However, the solemnity of the ceremony was not enough to keep the political swords sheathed.
President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), Komal Chand, in his address, told those gathered that lessons needed to be drawn from the sacrifice of the five brave men.
He said that the poor, who are oppressed and exploited, need to stand up and demand their rights and their dues as workers and as citizens.
Chand cautioned workers to keep their guard up, saying that even now there are threats to the cause that the martyrs fought for so bravely. He spoke of the threat to derecognise the trade union that was issued on December 16, last, by the board of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
He issued a challenge to the President to intervene on the union’s behalf, since he felt that the corporation was actively seeking to remove the unions from the picture. Chand also lamented the fact that despite a five percent pay increase being issued to sugar workers as of last year, they were still being paid at their 2009 figures. He called the action discriminatory on the part of the corporation’s management, and by extension, the state.
He was as effusive with his praise as he was his criticisms, and he lauded the Government’s response that will see the retrenched workers of the Diamond Estate being paid off on Sunday, even as job opportunities are offered by the Minister of Agriculture, who has said that the retrenched workers may take up jobs on the La Bonne Intention (LBI) Estate.
Delivering the feature address at the event for the last time in his capacity as President of the Republic, Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo immediately responded to Chand’s address, saying that it was a dishonour to the memory of the Enmore Martyrs to use the forum to air grievances.
He asserted that to equate the conditions experienced by the workers in the era of the Enmore Martyrs to those experienced today, when the corporation is under the state’s management, is a flawed basis for analysis, and to do so means one is missing the point.
The President argued that his government has done more for the sugar industry during his tenure than has ever before done by any other source. He cited the immense infusions of cash and modernisation investments, such as the Enmore packaging plant, as the Government’s response to the threats facing the sugar industry.
Jagdeo noted that when other countries in the Caribbean were backing out of the sugar industry Guyana was delving deeper into the business. But he noted that regardless of how much political will there might have been and the capital support given by the Government, it all comes to naught if the labour turnout is 42 percent.
The President stated that there was a real need for change in the politics of the unions too.
He said that the union headquarters cannot be centres of reactionary policy, and that there should be less armchair leadership.
Jagdeo said that his government was also closer to the people than the Unions and he used his Ministers of Agriculture, Labour and Health to support his point. He also pointed out that in all of the years he has been in office, the industry has not paid levies, and it has in fact received more monies than ever before.
The Head of State also argued that instead of criticising the Government’s management of the industry, the Unions should take up the Government’s offer for the Unions to run the industry on the condition that they can bear the burden of the associated costs.
He noted that up to this day the Unions have still not taken up his offer.
General Secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), Kenneth Joseph, also delivered a short address at the event. He spoke of the relevance of trade unions, saying that not only were they pivotal in the days of colonialism, but even today there is continued value in their existences, since representation and advocacy are cornerstones of democracy.
The FITUG executive noted that there needs to be a collective assault on the issues facing workers, especially those in the sugar industry, and it was therefore a call for peaceful collaboration between all of the representative bodies. Joseph also pointed out that there is room for the unions to now act as a social counter, and to play a role in some of the issues facing the nation, such as the increase in domestic violence incidents and murders, among other violent crimes.

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