Tensions flare in Region 10… Rusal workers refuse 1% percent increase; management orders them to leave

Feb 16, 2019 News

Scores of bauxite workers for Russian-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI), yesterday downed tools protesting a one percent pay increase that they say was arbitrarily decided.
By last evening, the workers, from the mining department and mobile equipment were ordered by management to leave the premises.
However, the workers, almost 100 of them from the mining department and workshop are standing their ground.
The situation is threatening to get ugly.
“We are not leaving this place. We are going to the ex-pats area tomorrow and we are not leaving. They told us that Government ‘okayed’ a one percent increase and that is it. Our working conditions are beyond belief and this government is dragging its foot,” a spokesman for the workers said yesterday.
He explained that workers saw increases of pay in their salaries and queried, and were told it was a one percent increase.
“Rusal and its local operation, BCGI, who has hired us, are refusing to recognize our union. They can come here and do what they want and no Government is telling them anything. We have become second class citizens in our own country.”
The first shift of equipment workers numbering 40 downed their tools yesterday.
Management met with them in the mine site area and ordered them to return to work or face a cease of operations.
The workshop crew too joined in the protests actions and by yesterday afternoon, the company wrote them, saying that there are no options by closing the mines.
The affected workers included the mining, mobile equipment operators, and maintenance crews.
They were told that all work have been brought to a stop until further notice.
“All affected workers are asked to leave the premises of the company with immediate effect.”
The workers were backed by the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union.
According to the union, the situation is an embarrassment to all Guyanese.
“The workers’ protest was responded to by management at a meeting held where they were brutally told that they will be fired if they do not return to work within the day, that they can seek redress wherever they want, and to hell with the government. The operations at the mines and maintenance departments have come to a halt.”
The union said that Article 147(2) of the Constitution of Guyana protects the right to strike.
The union said that since December 2009, under the noses of successive governments, BCGI has been engaged in a series of violation of the law and transgressing of the workers’ rights.
“The management continues to refuse to treat with the recognised union of the workers’ choice, the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU).
“GB&GWU had earlier informed Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle, of the industrial action taken by the aggrieved and deprived workers. The Union stands in solidarity with these workers in the exercise of their basic right and for the upholding of their attendant rights.”
It called for all Guyanese to understand the struggles faced by these workers, to empathise with them, and to lend support.
“GB&GWU calls on the international community for its solidarity. The continued violation of BCGI workers threatens multiple family units and the entire communities within which they reside. The threat to one is a threat to all; and injustice here is an injustice everywhere.”
According to the bauxite union, workers of BCGI have been suffering since under the previous government and continue to suffer under the current.
“How many more have to suffer, how many families and children have to suffer? As Guyanese, citizens of the world, one and all will have to face the reality now. GB&GWU calls on the Government and Opposition to intervene immediately and stop this violation of the Guyana Constitution and the Rule of Law and the transgressing of the workers’ right by a foreign sovereign power.”
The union noted that in this period of political division and external tension with neighbouring Venezuela, which is facilitating a growing presence of Russia in its ongoing pursuit of geopolitical relevance, is management’s new threats and intensified violation, a strategy that must be paid attention to.
“More so, in the context of a heated upcoming election and the exploitation of our oil and gas resources, this matter is no longer a simple labour issue. There seems to be a hidden agenda with potentially dangerous consequences that both the Government and Opposition should take immediate action on. This is about a nation’s sovereignty and national interest, the respect for worldwide comity.”
In 2009, more than 50 striking workers were sacked by BCGI. That matter has never been resolved.