WORKERS ARE MAKING THEIR OWN HUSTLE

Oct 03, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Guyanese today who are employed in the public sector are not wasting time like previous generations hoping that one day official providence will smile on them and grant them a fat pay increase. Guyanese workers are not in the mood to be waiting in vain.
Many are on the hustle. Some work in the office in the day and catch their hands in the night doing a part time job, or hustle whatever you want to call it.
Others, when a better offer comes along take that offer. There are always greener pastures for those with ambition and those willing to take a chance. It is those who are afraid of taking risks that end up stuck in dead- end job that go nowhere and pay next to nothing.
Just recently, the Guyana Public Service Union called for a 25 per cent increase in wages for public servants. When a union calls for 25 per cent, you know that they will settle for 10 per cent. The government knows this too and they will pay five per cent because this is the average they have paid for the past twenty years.
The government has all the excuses and gets away with it because the workers are in no mood to struggle for anything collectively and the unions are too weak to generate any sustained industrial action. Workers have long learnt to move on to better things. There are far too many options out there for public employees to even think about industrial action.
These options are the reasons why there is a severe shortage of labour in the sugar industry. Many sugar workers are now working for more money doing soft labour at businesses and on minibuses. This is less strenuous and more rewarding than the back-breaking task of cutting canes on the estates. Many of them are into construction and some prefer to do a little buying and selling and are making good money from their small kitchen gardens. The sugar workers, long the most oppressed workers in Guyana are moving on. Instead of intense industrial agitation, they are joining the bandwagon and making a hustle elsewhere.
There was an advertisement for porters which recently appeared in the dailies. The company concerned manufactures furniture. They are offering $3000 per day. That is more than most low level staff in the public service make. Other private companies are paying very well. If you are good with computers you can nail down a decent job with one of the telemarketing companies. Just outside Beepats on Regent Street there are some vendors selling socks.
Now, they must be making something decent to be sitting all day peddling socks. So why would any low-level public servant bother about industrial action when there are opportunities for the taking outside of government employment.
But there is an even better option open to Guyanese workers. If you have family living outside of Guyana you can always call them up, tell them that things tough in Guyana and that some days you have nothing to eat.
When they ask why you do not have a job, you can tell them that since the PPPC came to power, there are no jobs available. Like suckers they will go down every month to the money transfer office and send you some American dollars which you will spend sporting and drinking with your friends while they work their butts off to make the sacrifice to send you the money.
Guyanese in the Diaspora are suckers for a sad story. They will send you money regular enough and sufficient enough that you can retire early and live the life of Riley.
The effects of all of these options provide little or no incentive or motivation to strike or agitate for any increase in salary. In fact, many government workers prefer the five per cent which is paid retroactively each Christmas because this allows them a lump sum payment to enjoy the holidays.
The Unions therefore face a daunting task to try to press their case for increases. And when it comes to local public service, it is most likely that today there are far more non-unionized workers than there are unionized workers.
What this means is that the public service unions are in decline and are really losing clout. The government knows all of this and has already decided that five per cent is good enough each year.

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WORKERS ARE MAKING THEIR OWN HUSTLE

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