The PPP learnt nothing and forgotten nothing about the labour movement

Nov 17, 2013 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) seems to have learnt nothing and to have forgotten nothing about the labour movement over the past sixty years. It is repeating the same old, failed anti-union actions and expecting different outcomes. The PPP does not seem to recognise that its attitudes and actions have actually demotivated and demoralised workers, particularly in the public services.
Strong trade unions and a united labour movement are essential to effective governance, social security, a fairer society and national development. A ‘social contract’ that encourages collaborative relations among the government, employers and trade unions is needed at this time. Such a ‘social contract,’ rather than social conflict, can contribute to improving productivity, strengthening democracy, reducing poverty and enhancing the quality of life of the population. There is much to lose, on the other hand, by fostering conditions for permanent confrontation and crisis.
The PPP, however, seems to thrive on discord. This became evident particularly during the Bharrat Jagdeo presidency and in the wake of the massive eight-week public servants’ strike of 1999 and the five-week teachers’ strike of 2003. Both unions are affiliates of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, which the PPP thinks was politically opposed to it in the past and continues to be.
It was in the wake of the government’s having been forced to make concessions to its public servants as a result of these two powerful strikes that the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana – FITUG – was sharpened as a tool to split the labour movement. FITUG had originally come into being 25 years ago in October 1988 to oppose the People’s National Congress administration’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund and the launch of the Economic Recovery Programme at that time.
The PPP’s masterstroke in dividing the labour movement was the passage of the controversial Trade Union Recognition (Amendment) Bill 2008. The Bill was passed by the National Assembly in January 2009 in the face of resistance by the entire opposition – PNCR, AFC and GAP-ROAR parties. It was the device used to replace the GTUC with FITUG. It has deepened the divisions that plague the labour movement to this day. The subvention to the Critchlow Labour College, administered by the GTUC, was gratuitously withheld as part of the plot to weaken the GTUC.
The consequences of the PPP’s actions have been to enfeeble trade unions, frustrate workers and fracture the labour movement. Under the PPP at present, only 50,000 of Guyana’s 250,000 workers, or about 20 per cent, are unionised, the lowest level in memory. The PPP, however, does not seem to care that its attitudes and actions are actually harming workers. Low morale has made government less effective and workers less happy. ‘Wildcat’ strikes proliferate even by workers of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union – GAWU – a pro-PPP union.
Conflict in the labour movement is not inevitable. Cooperation is possible. The Presidents of the Guyana Trade Union Congress (GTUC) and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) showed the way to closer collaboration when they signed a Communiqué in January 2013 to resolve several issues which afflicted public servants.
The unions committed to a ‘covenant’ that included working towards appointing the Public Service Appellate Tribunal; upholding and restoring collective bargaining agreements in the public sector; protecting and enhancing the National Insurance Scheme; reducing the Value Added Tax; rectifying the contract worker system of employment and repealing the 1999 amendment to the Termination of  Employment and Severance Pay Act.
The labour movement today is in a state of unease and uncertainty. Numerous issues – the high cost of living, low wages and pensions, oppressive value-added tax, underemployment and poverty – affect workers. Every day, workers somewhere are obliged to protest against unbearable conditions. This is evident in their continuous picketing, protesting and work stoppages.
Workers are concerned about several serious issues, most of all, the high cost of living. The PPP continues to ignore the impact that the imposition of the callous 16 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) has had on households. VAT caused the cost of living in Guyana to spike, thereby undermining the ability of our workers to provide adequately for their families.
The PPP’s dismissive attitude to collective bargaining and its collective labour agreement with the GPSU has emboldened other companies to try to treat trade unions with similar contempt. The state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation and the Russian-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc., once went so far as to threaten to ‘de-recognise’ the legitimate unions in those industries, but those threats were thwarted. The PPP has been slow to protect the rights of Guyanese workers in foreign companies which have recently entered the country. Workers have faced dismissals, deaths and injuries, suspensions and industrial accidents.
A Partnership for National Unity is convinced that trade unions can contribute much more to enhancing the quality of workers’ lives. They are the best guardians of fair employment practices. The PPP must learn to respect all trade unions and to desist from further dividing the labour movement.

 

 

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