Latest update April 7th, 2025 6:08 AM
Opposition cares nothing about workers, only political power
– FITUG President
Upon entering the National Park yesterday in commemoration of Labour Day, participants were greeted with a leaflet highlighting a number of contentious points related to the 2012 Budget such as “PPP-Civic says Budget Cuts are vindictive and spiteful…It is absurd to give the President just $1 to spend, instead of the $95M allocated,” and this set the tone for an intense period of condemnation.
President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) Carvil Duncan was one of the speakers who lashed out at the opposition saying that the parties care nothing about workers, only political power, and their only concern is to cripple the government at the expense of the workers, “so you (workers) are pawns.”
Part of the FITUG contingent during yesterday’s march
He asserted that Guyana has traversed in a path of development and prosperity for the working class.
“I am convinced we had our struggles, and for the last 20-years we have seen the light in the tunnel because we knew where we were going …We are fortunate in Guyana that there has not been any retrenchment. In fact, the then President had indicated that based on the plans he had for Guyana, very soon we would have to import labour in Guyana to satisfy our needs, and that is a step in the right direction,” Duncan underscored.
Noting that the workers gave the opposition their votes and they will take them back when the time arises, the FITUG president said that being a senior Trade Unionist, he recalled in 1981, “the then administration embarked on a programme called redeployment which caused 100-plus public servants to receive letters of retrenchment”.
“They didn’t stop there. In 1983 they used another strategy and called it restructuring. They shifted public servants all over the place, and when they (public servants) went to parliament to protest they gone”
“Is it fair for us to draw the conclusion that when they were in Government they dismissed workers and now they are in opposition they are passing motions in Parliament to cut subventions so people can be dismissed again?” Duncan asked.
Highlighting that FITUG continues to demonstrate the capacity to lead the trade union movement at this critical juncture in history when most things are changing in the world, Duncan stressed that the opposition parties do not know their role, and should use their influence to improve the conditions of the working class.
“We must not stand idle and will not rest until proper representation is given to those persons come Wednesday morning. If you have to walk, we will walk with you, if you have to run we will run with you. We will be with you day come and night come, good or bad, because you are workers,” Duncan stressed. “FITUG was the first to say when the budget came out that it was a working people’s budget, it’s a budget we can live with for now because next year things can be better.”
FITUG is the umbrella body which covers four unions – the Guyana Labour Union (GLU), the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU) and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU).
Under the theme “Investing in Workers’ welfare, uniting the nation,”
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