Politics have marginalised the trade union movement

Jun 06, 2013 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The British Guiana Labour Union (BGLU) became the first duly recognised union in the colony. From very early in its formation, the BGLU acted as a voice of the people. Its primary goal was to make sure that its members were treated fairly by employers. The BGLU succeeded in bringing economic and social change in Guyana in that it initiated changes to the harsh working conditions imposed on the workers by the plutocracy class.
In this time of deep need, most of these union characteristics are all but lost in Guyana, due to the fact that the trade unions are caught up in the silly politics practiced by the ruling clique. As a result, the workers are forced to accept tiny increases in wages imposed upon them without consideration for the high cost of living.
For the past five years, the government has enforced a 5% increase on civil servants while hiring and paying contract workers super salaries. The Public Service Union (PSU), GAWU and others have been weakened by not being allowed to negotiate wages and better working conditions on behalf of their members.
Today, it is sad to say that the once powerful Trade Union movements are a shadow of their former selves in that they have been marginalised by the anti-working class administration. These unions are on the fringes of the mainstream decision-making process as the unethical and uncaring government launches a coordinated attack to destroy the trade union movement. Not even GAWU, whose members are supporters of the PPP regime, is spared with a threat of de-recognition still hanging over their heads. A strong Trade Union movement means a more accountable Government, but the PPP will have none of it. Accountability, transparency and good governance are the anathema of the ruling party.
But the deeper point remains unemployment. The rate of unemployment in 2012 was closer to 20% and youth unemployment is closer to 50% as defined by the UNDP in its latest Human Development Report. July 2013 will mark the 91st anniversary of the legal establishment of the Trade Union Movement in Guyana, but is this the legacy of that movement; high unemployment?
The government has no concrete national economic plan for the creation of jobs. The Alliance for Change (AFC) in its manifesto proposed an immediate strategy to employ 5,000 Guyanese with minimal economic skills to clean up the country for one year. This project would have cost the state G$2.1billion, but the socio-economic impact would have been positively felt for decades. But the government would have none of it.
It was AFC founder member, the late Ms. Sheila Holder who has always preached that “we have to find solutions for new jobs and a livable wage for the people.” Ms. Holder left the AFC with its first Foundation of “More jobs; better pay.” Ask any AFC leader today and they will tell you that they all hold dearly to that principle.
It was the AFC which proposed that we must outfit all primary and secondary schools with desktop computers “made in Guyana by Guyanese; thus creating some 2,000 permanent jobs in the computer assembly business in all ten Regions”. So the PPP’s continued abandonment of the AFC’s Action Plan is to the detriment of the country. The document represents a grand opportunity to help President Ramotar attack unemployment and poverty.
So to the President and his cabal, there is no reason to fret about the 2013 Budget cuts; that is old news. Get down to the business of developing Guyana for all the people and not just a selected few. It is time for the President to get a new deck of advisors since the current ‘leftovers’ are leading him down a destructive and disastrous path.
To do nothing regarding unemployment is simply not an option. As Franklin Roosevelt once noted, “True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

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