Rusal orders kitchen to stop cooking for workers

Feb 17, 2019 News

-key meeting tomorrow to find solutions to stalemate

Bauxite workers of Rusal, in Upper Berbice, Region Ten, are digging in their heels, and refusing to budge in the second day of standoff against management over an arbitrary one percent increase.
Yesterday, in a situation that is escalating, Rusal’s management ordered that its kitchen staff not cook for the mines workers.

Union leader, Lincoln Lewis with a few staffers yesterday at Aroaima, Upper Berbice, Region 10.

In defiance, the workers started to cook for themselves.
The Russian-owned company on Friday ordered local staffers from the Kurubuka mine site and reportedly sent buses to remove them yesterday after protests about an arbitrary one percent increase in salary.
Yesterday, workers met with union leader, Lincoln Lewis, at the Aroaima staff sports club where it was announced that a meeting is set tomorrow at the Ministry of Social Protection.
It will involve union officials, government and Rusal management.
“We are not going anywhere and this decision to not cook for the staffers is an indication what we as citizens have to deal with,” a spokesperson for the workers said yesterday.
It was explained that Lewis told workers that Government is supporting them and they should stand their ground.
In a video released yesterday, workers were seen outside the staff club cooking soup for 150 persons. They said they will have to cook three times a day.
In another video, workers were seen talking to a “Mr. Saul”, said to be representing management.
He informed them that there were buses available to take them home.
However, he was rebuffed by the angry workers who questioned why management took the arbitrary decision to increase salaries by one percent without informing workers.

Rusal workers being forced to cook for themselves after the company ordered its kitchen staff to stand down.

“Saul” told them that management does not consider Friday’s downing of tools as strike actions.
It is only a strike when management is informed, he said.
However, workers promptly told him that they were not informed of the arbitrary increase.
On Friday, scores of bauxite workers downed tools at the Kurubuka mining area and were later written to management of the Russian company that work has been cancelled.
They were told to leave the premises.
The situation threatened to get ugly.
“We are not leaving this place. We are going to the ex-pats area tomorrow (Saturday) 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.
The first shift of equipment workers numbering 40 downed their tools first.
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 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.
The workers were backed by the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union.

A few of the other workers.

According to the union, on Friday, 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.
“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.”
According to the bauxite union, workers of BCGI have been suffering since under the previous government and continue to suffer under the current.
“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.
Rusal has almost 500 workers with the majority of them from Linden and Berbice.