UGSS affairs in hands of an individual who’s out of touch with its members

Nov 28, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Mr. Godfrey Adams has just recently left the service of the University of Guyana. This is worth noting because Mr. Adams is a former Organising Secretary of the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) whose service to that Union and to national trade unionism deserves public commendation. Unlike so many others, his activities were not self-serving and he demonstrated a genuine interest in the trade union movement and in fighting for workers. The reputation he earned for this made him the most popular representative at the University.
Mr. Adams was the last true worker representative in the UGWU, and what is of further importance is that he was the last member of that union’s Executive who was duly elected to his post. No Executive member presently serving was elected to the post he holds. Besides, he has left the UGWU in its worst state of dysfunctionality and undemocratic governance. I had to give up my own union membership when I became an Officer of the University, but I would not choose to return to it because of what the once strong and militant UGWU has become and the way it is used to serve personal agendas.
The UGWU last held elections for its officers and Executive in the year 2002. There has been no Annual General Meeting since 2003 and it no longer has General Membership Meetings. Only one such meeting has been convened in seven years to discuss a salary matter. But over that lengthy period the union has continued with an un-elected Executive; the membership has not been called to any General Meetings to carry out its business or to elect any officer as required by its constitution. Annual elections are supposed to be held, and there is supposed to be an AGM each year.
What is worse, is that during this time, the affairs of the union have been handed over to Mr. Frederick Kissoon who has made all public statements in its name, and has appeared as its representative on all university boards except one. Mr. Kissoon signs documents, public statements and letters as Vice-Chairman of the UGWU; but he was never elected to that position. The last person duly elected to that post was Dr Adeola James in 2002. Since then there has been no attempt to hold elections.
In Mr. Kissoon’s numerous writings in the press he presents himself as a highly principled person, a champion for the rights of citizens, a fierce defender of democracy and truth, an upholder of morality, an opponent of injustice and a fighter against corruption and wrongdoing. It is therefore very surprising that he would assume an office to which he was never elected, and hold it for so many years without ever going to the plebiscite to legitimise it.
How can such an advocate for democracy lead an Executive that has held no AGM as is constitutionally demanded, and no elections for eight years? This Executive has allowed Mr. Kissoon to become the UGWU like the “roi soleil” Louis XIV of France who declared “l’etat, c’est moi”. How can a champion for democratic rights never consult the union members to find out what their thoughts are on any of those matters to which he has been a signatory in their name?
The UGWU has a seat on the four most important Boards at UG : the Council, the Academic Board, the Finance and General Purposes Committee (F&GPC) and the Appointments Committee. Mr. Kissoon occupies all except one. The Academic Board statutorily meets every month, and would have had more than 50 meetings in the past five years.
Mr. Kissoon dropped in at no more than six of these without ever staying through the whole meeting. For example, his only visit for the whole of 2011 was a brief interlude of less than 30 minutes in order to chide the meeting for not supporting an opinion he had been pushing publicly that the Ethnic Relations Commission was an illegal body.
Out of 35 meetings of the Appointments Committee over the same period Mr. Kissoon turned up at no more than four. For another example, in one whole year, he turned up to one meeting only. It so happens that the renewal of his contract was on the agenda. How can a strident voice for the people and a defender of their rights fail to go to meetings where he has purported to represent the interests of the University staff?
Actually, at the level of Appointments Committee, Deans speak for their staff, but the University Statutes stipulate both Academic Board and union representation to ensure that staff at all levels have a voice at the workplace.
However, on two counts, the UGWU has forfeited that voice and that place. First, the Statutes specify that the representative should be “a non-academic” member of the union. It was Kissoon who got the Council to agree to change that so that he, as an academic member, could become the representative. Secondly, even that representation has come to naught because of the dysfunctionality.
There is therefore concern at UG about this absence of effective union representation. I have no personal ambitions in the matter. As previously mentioned, over all of these past years, according to the Statutes, I could hold no office in the union because of my positions in University management. In any case, I have also withdrawn from association with the UGWU and am a member of no union. I cannot, therefore, lead or represent the union or be elected to any office within it.
I write to pay some tribute to former Organising Secretary Godfrey Adams who worked commendably before this deterioration, and to express concern for the state of the body that he has just left.
The UGWU has a distinguished history in the service of the university and in industrial relations at a national level as a workers’ organisation in the struggle for bread and social justice. Such a record has now been compromised by this present depleted force, handed over to a single individual, undemocratic and out of touch with its members.
Al Creighton

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