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Promises, promises, promises!

May 02, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Workers are suckers for a nice promise. And politicians are good at making promises, especially to the working class. But the greatest tragedy is not the politicians’ broken promises. It is the fact that the workers’ continue to support those politicians who sell them all manner of excuses as to why promises cannot be kept.
In 1977, the Trades Union Congress signed a three-year agreement with the government for increases in the minimum wage. Under that agreement, it was decided that the minimum wage in 1979 would be $14 per day.
When the time came to pay the increase the government reneged, pointing to the poor performance of the economy. During a May Day address at the National Park, Burnham told the workers that they had to make a choice between having the Upper Mazaruni Hydroelectric Power Project and the $14 minimum wage.
Guess what the workers chose? They screamed that they would take the hydro plant instead of the increase in the minimum wage. It took another five years for the minimum wage to surpass what had been promised in 1979.
The workers of Guyana are their own enemies. They continue to support and cheer politicians who end up dishonouring the promises they make to them.
When a sugar worker, Teemal, successfully challenged the failure of his employer to pay him agreed increments, the government passed the Labour Amendment Act in 1984 to override the Court’s decision.
We are now reading that some 4,000 contract workers have been transferred to the permanent establishment of the public service. But it is also certain that the Public Service Commission would not have determined whether those 4,000 contract workers were all meritoriously employed in the first place.
In the meantime, the teachers are awaiting their 50% and 40% increases for the past two years. They seem to have a draft agreement with the government which they are hoping will be signed, but they are now being told that the matter is with the Ministry of Finance.
But what happens if the Ministry of Finance says that it does not have the money to satisfy what was agreed. That inability acts as a veto against a negotiated agreement and the teachers’ union will have to go back to the negotiating table for a wages agreement. Workers are being taken for a ride once again. And they never learn. They go back to trust politicians.
The workers also continue to depend on their union who are quite content to negotiate yearly increases, half of which end up being eroded by inflation.
This becomes a constant fight each year. What is needed is a formula for setting a living wage which should become a minimum wage. It is likely that the economy would not be able immediately to afford a living wage. But the important thing is to have a target or base wage to work towards, so that each year the government will pay an increase that would be aimed at approaching a living wage.
Workers are emotionally drained by having to fight each year for wage increases. They have been fighting since 1977 for a living wage. Forty-one years after, all they are receiving are promises. No wonder so many of them prefer to get drunk on May Day.

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