Something is seriously wrong with the Guyana Labour Union

Oct 17, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Something has to be seriously wrong with the labour union that represents the ‘fixed’ or permanent employees of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown, and that union to which I refer is the Guyana Local Government Officers Union. Quite recently, we saw the other union, the Guyana Labour Union which represents the additional category of municipal employees better known as ‘unfixed’ workers undertaking a demarche on City Hall, and under the astute leadership of Mr. Carvil Duncan, they let the council’s administrators know exactly how they felt about the atrocities being committed against their members.
But for some strange reason, the Guyana Local Government Officers Union seems to have become dumb, deaf, toothless and completely uncaring to the hardships their membership faces each day. Could you imagine the workers are faced month after month for the past two years, with receiving their salaries late which causes them to have to pay additional interest on loans acquired, having their electricity and water supply cut off each month due to late payments, having the hire purchase people chase after them for their monthly installments? And not a whimper from this union! Maybe this is because a senior functionary of the union, who recently retired from the Council, does not wish to rock the boat and stymie the release of her seven million plus dollar payout from the Council.
The membership of this union is forced to sit and watch helplessly, as the Council employs on an almost daily basis, relatives and friends of senior officials, unlawfully placing them at the highest points of the salary scales and appointing them to super salaried positions superseding persons who have worked at the Council for decades.
What does the Guyana Local Government Officers do about this blatant nepotism, cronyism and favouritism that negatively affect their members who are the victims? Absolutely nothing! This might be because the union itself is run like a family business, with leadership positions being passed from brother to sister and to friends.
The union quietly watches on whilst some of the senior administrators purchase for themselves, state of the art vehicles, luxury homes and go off on luxury trips abroad whilst its ordinary members struggle to find a place to live, cannot afford to purchase an auto cycle and struggle to find food to feed their children. One wonders whether this has anything to do with the concrete block manufacturing scam and where the blocks ended up.
The union is aware that its membership is forced to inhumanely slaughter animals at the Abattoir, made to work without proper tools, without the required protective gear and in workspaces and offices that are derelict, unsafe and an eyesore, but the union says not a word. This might be because their only concern is to gouge union membership fees from its faithful flock and to travel around the world themselves purportedly on union business.
The union quietly observes massive corruption ongoing at the council, including the farming out of work to contractors in violation of all tender and procurement procedures, work which is being taken away from its members and members of the other unions.
Inevitably, the Council will have to downsize its gargantuan staff structure but what will be interesting to note is who will get the pink slips. Will they fire the big shots, and their relatives, friends and church pals who were given cushy high paying jobs or will they target the ordinary workers who have no connections and who have worked conscientiously for decades with the Council.
Will they close the purposeless Public Relations Section of the Council or will they instead nonsensically get rid of worthwhile departments such as Day Care Centres that take care of the kids of working mothers? Will the Council’s workers ever be properly represented against the atrocities being committed against them by their employers, the rights of workers protected and collectively bargained on behalf of? Let us wait and see.

Deodarie Putulall

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