Workers must liberate themselves from their unions

May 01, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Workers of the world unite. You no longer need your unions. Nothing better reflects the impotence of Guyanese trade unions that the inability of the sugar unions to prevent the closure of three sugar estates, and the failure of the Guyana Public Service Union to take action in the face of the APNU+AFC continuing the PPPC’s practice of imposing wage increases on workers.
The umbrella organization for trade unions in Guyana, the Guyana Trade Union Congress, has also become an old boys club, with lots of bark but no bite. Other unions have also become ineffective.
This is not a phenomenon that is confined to Guyana. All around the world, trade unions have become impotent. They are no longer the forces to power which they used to be.
Workers in the meantime are suffering. The Guyana Revenue Authority has reportedly announced that it has collected an extra eight billion dollars for the first quarter of this year.
The government is asking Parliament to approve financing for legal fees to the tune of almost eight hundred million dollars. The government is buying some old aircraft to the tune of almost half a billion dollars.
But what about a supplementary provision to pay nurses, teachers and the police a 100% increase in salaries? Why cannot the government devote that 8 billion dollars towards increasing workers’ pay?
And do you expect that the union can successfully press the government to allow workers to benefit from this revenue windfall? It is not going to happen. Workers are going to be left out in the cold.
They will march today, sing Solidarity Forever, collect their box of food and their Malta and go back home. Nothing more is going to change.
The unions have nothing to offer workers anymore. The Guyana Teachers Union has been negotiating since last year for increases for teachers. The teachers are expecting that the increases will be retroactive to at least 2017. By the time the agreement is reached, some teachers will be due for retirement.
Workers have to free themselves from their unions. Workers have to organize themselves for action. They do not need unions. The same monies which the workers are paying their union leaders, they can use that monies to establish a fund to mobilize action for higher wages. The workers do not need the unions.
The unions are a drag on workers. Time is going by and living wage is still elusive. It is time for workers to liberate themselves from their trade unions.
The trade unions are going to be out on a big show today to assure themselves and the workers that they are still relevant. They are no longer relevant. The employers and the government do not take them seriously.
Union leaders have done some strange things in this country. Some of them have been compromised, in the past, by the very persons with whom they were supposed to be negotiating.
There are deep divisions within the Trade Union Movement. The present show of unity is only plaster. It cannot mend the divisions within the Trade Union Movement.
There are deep chasms within certain trade unions with controversial elections calling into question the legitimacy of some union leaders. Some unions are politically tainted.
Why should workers continue to live in hope? Unions have failed the workers of this country for far too long. It is time for a clean break.
Workers of Guyana, cut your ties from your union. You do not need them. You have everything to gain, including your freedom.

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