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PPP chides GTUC over its rejection of CLC subvention
The People’s Progressive Party has responded to the Guyana Trade Union Congress’ (GTUC) rejection of the recent decision by the National Assembly to restore the Critchlow Labour College (CLC) subvention, provided that the CLC board is comprised of four members from the Government aligned Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG).
The GTUC, through it General Secretary Lincoln Lewis had previously announced that while they are appreciative of the Government subvention, they will not agree to have FITUG on the CLC board since the College is privately owned by the GTUC and for the National Assembly to impose a management structure is unconstitutional and against their by-laws.
PPP MP Manzoor Nadir
The Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) Member of Parliament (MP) Manzoor Nadir at a press conference yesterday at Freedom House, lambasted the GTUC for the position it has taken.
He asserted that for years there have been calls from many quarters, “especially the political Opposition and anti-government public figures”, to restore the subvention which the Government had suspended, “citing that there must be accountability and democratic governance within the Critchlow Labour College.”
He then said that the rejection by the GTUC of the National Assembly’s unanimous motion is a clear indication that “all the ‘hullabaloo’ they made about the restoration of the subvention, had nothing to do about money and the students, but was merely about politics.”
According to Nadir, the TUC leadership has stood steadfast in its position that it would prefer to “rule over ruin, a sick philosophy of many in the People’s National Congress, rather than come to a consensus that would be in the interest of all stakeholders of the College and the national labour movement as a whole.”
Nadir stressed that such a consensus was reached last week in the National Assembly when all of the MPs registered their vote for reform in the governance of the Critchlow Labour College, by ensuring that the collective voice of the organized labour movement is represented on the Board of the CLC.
“The swift and complete rejection by the TUC is not only a slap in the face of the Alliance for Change which brought the motion and the amendment, but it also reflects on the labour aristocracy which has hijacked the CLC. A dictatorship that is not intent on managing the CLC for the development of our youth and the unity of labour movement, but to achieve the objective of making the PPP/C government look bad. It is this dictatorship that is hurting the Critchlow Labour College and preventing the unification of the labour movement” said Nadir.
According to Nadir, the International Labour Organization (ILO) in all of its conventions and policy statements speaks to the state and stakeholders consulting with the “the most representative organizations of labour The GTUC and certainly the composition of the Board of the CLC cannot and does not, pass this litmus test of the ILO.”
He outlined that two former CLC Principals, Dr. Rupert Roopnarine and the late Godwin McPherson wanted to ensure that the CLC would revert to being an institution of education rather than a vehicle of politics.
According to Nadir, Dr. Roopnarine had worked hard towards bringing the financial records of the CLC up to date and to deal with the accountability aspects of the CLC. “He was at that time providing for the requirements which were asked of the College by the Minister of Education. This angered the GTUC dictatorship who began to put pressure on him and even threatened to fire him causing him to quit in disgust, saying that the CLC was being run like ‘cake-shop’. The late Godwin McPherson, for all his efforts to put education first and politics behind, was padlocked out of his office when he was principal” said the PPP MP.
According to Nadir the PPP feels vindicated that it has all along “correctly spoken about the leadership of the TUC’s efforts to keep out democratic governance from being the norm in the TUC.”
He further said that “this refusal to bring democratization to the TUC has also been the cause of the split in the labour movement and the formation of the FITUG. Last week’s unanimity in the passage of the motion in Parliament was a rare show of consensus where the CLC was concerned; however, these hopes are once again being dashed by the minority that calls itself the Guyana Trades Union Congress.”
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