The current public relations stunt by the Government will not fool us

Feb 07, 2013 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
The current public relations stunt by the Government of Guyana on matters relating to the bauxite industry has not and will not fool the communities and workers whose lives are directly affected by bauxite.
December 2009 marked three years where the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI) has refused to treat with the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU), which is a violation of Section 23 of the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Act, Chapter 98:01.
The Minister of Labour, Nanda Gopaul, who has given the High Court a commitment to reissue the Letter of Arbitration, is still to act and the GB&GWU believes his decision is another act of contempt the PPP has for the Rule of Law and the Judiciary. The rule of law and the courts only make sense to this oppressive regime when they can derive personal benefit.
There is no universality in respecting rights and the courts, regardless of who benefits or feels the consequences. Yet the government and sections of society would want us to believe this is the “return to democracy.”
Return to democracy for this society has come to mean open corruption, marginalisation, greed, oppression, unethical behaviour by holders of high offices, wanton racism, disregard for universal respect for the law, efforts to enslave some, and deny many what’s rightly theirs under the law. It is known that persons who don’t have respect for laws are inherently corrupt in their behaviour and this is the reason why government and public officials near to this regime are constantly caught engaging in corrupt practices.
The heightened interest shown by the government in bauxite is only because bauxite is making money and they can get kickbacks and gifts from the Russians and Chinese, who so far have shown no respect for our laws and Guyanese.
The government, and by extension the people of Guyana, have co-ownership in BCGI and BOSAI, but to date this government has refused to ensure respect for the Laws of the Land and the rights of bauxite workers and their families. These acts of violation constitute a new form of enslavement of Guyana’s labour force.
Though there are laws that clearly state how workers must be treated and employers comply when it comes to bauxite workers, the government turns a blind eye to their mistreatment because it serves their purpose to receive kick-backs and enrichment.
With all due respect to the workforce in the sugar sector, they cannot match the work ethics and production performance of the bauxite workers, yet they do not have to suffer what their counterparts in bauxite are going through. Statistics and evidence in the public domain strengthened this claim.
In other societies, bauxite workers would have been used as model workers, with unions and companies trying to emulate their standards. Performance, competence and innovation are not admired and rewarded under this administration.
These qualities are misguidedly seen as opportunities for exploitation by a government which is clearly out of its depth on matters of good governance and management.
This letter serves to remind the government that the bauxite workforce are Guyanese too, and based on the history of this country, the ancestors of this workforce successfully fought enslavement and other forms of indignity and inequity. It was the families of these workers who paved the way for others to not have to suffer similar treatment and stood beside them as they fought for their dignity.
Bauxite workers will not be the mule for anyone. If such was resisted during slavery, then having learnt from the lessons of the past the current forms of violation will continue to meet resistance. The wheels of production cannot turn without the workers and the boasted billions from sales and proposed expansion of production cannot be achieved without the workers. Make no mistake, if Africans resisted enslavement with all their might, and used different methods in their fight, the workers and their unions have not lost sight that similar methods are still applicable in the 21st century.
This society must not be fooled by the few scholarships given out by BCGI and their community outreaches because such fall under the category of corporate responsibility, and in fact ,were BCGI a good corporate citizen it would obey our laws and respect the workers’ rights.
The General Manager who had threatened workers has been returned to the Aroaima location even as BCGI in their own inquiry stated that this manager’s conduct was unbecoming.
The manager can only be brought back because the government is party to the programme of disrespect and oppression. For far less the PPP and its unions would have created waves in this society if such treatment were meted out to sugar workers and their actions would have been supported. The Bauxite workforce is no less deserving if we are truly living in a society where all must be treated equally.
Leslie Gonsalves
President, GB&GWU

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