Collective response needed to arrest RUSAL’s threat to sovereignty – GTUC

Feb 21, 2019 News

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“A threat to sovereignty” is how the conduct of the management of the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated [BCGI] has been described by President of the Guyana Trades Union Congress [GTUC], Ms. Coretta McDonald.
BCGI, which is controlled by Russian Aluminium [RUSAL], has been found guilty of actions which McDonald said can be chalked up to blatant contempt towards high officials and institutions of government.
It is the view of the GTUC, McDonald said, that while the role of RUSAL as an investor in the country’s bauxite industry warrants full recognition, the status of an investor does not entitle the company to ride roughshod over the laws of Guyana and the rights of the Guyanese people. The Russian managers at BCGI, she added, have repeatedly overstepped their mark and a juncture has been reached where a robust collective response from the relevant institutions and the people of Guyana is warranted.
McDonald in a fierce statement yesterday said, “Nowhere is that more clearly reflected than in the repeated refusal of the company to respond to summonses by the Ministry of Social Protection to engage on matters pertaining to the rights of the company’s workers and the responsibilities of its management.”
“That indeed, was the case in the instance of last Monday’s meeting. Rather than sit around the negotiating table, BCGI’s Russian management simply applied their accustomed draconian and heavy-handed approach by dismissing 61 workers,” McDonald chided.
According to McDonald, the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union [GB&GWU], the trade union representing BCGI workers, learnt on Monday that the workers were summarily fired, after exercising their democratic right to take strike action in protest over a ‘pay increase’ imposition that had not been preceded by any negotiating exercise.
“That kind of arbitrary high-handedness underpinned by the total and complete exclusion of the GB&GWU from the negotiating process has always been an integral part of the management style of BCGI’s Russian management,” McDonald said.
She continued, “While the GTUC primary concern at this time is that the dismissed workers be restored to their jobs, immediately, without loss of pay and that the company be required, as obtains under the Laws of Guyana to recognize and engage the GB&GWU, we are no less concerned over the historic persistence of the Government of Guyana with its ‘policy’ of leaden-footed indifference to the sustained arrogance and abusiveness of the Russian management of the BCGI.”
She moreover asserted that since BCGI’s operations in Guyana has been spread over political administrations led by both the current APNU+AFC Coalition and the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic [PPP/C], “We believe that both of these must accept responsibility for the prevailing status quo”.
She pointed out that despite political differences, the company’s Russian management and RUSAL as a whole, must be left under no illusions regarding the unified nature of the struggle to bring an end to tyranny.
“One might add that the struggle to push back against the tyranny of the RUSAL managers at BCGI is not a partisan political struggle, but a struggle for the dignity and sovereignty of our country against an oppressor,” the GTUC President added.
“RUSAL, we need to remind ourselves, has a significant stake in the country’s bauxite industry. That stake, however, does not extend to the sovereignty of Guyana,” McDonald added.

In addition, she went on to note that over the years, successive political administrations have sat on their hands continually, indifferent to the various and repeated instances in which the BCGI’s management have trampled on the rights of the workers and laughed in the face of government, as if defying the administration to respond to its audacity.
Accordingly, McDonald said some actions must be taken immediately in response to the recent arbitrary and illegal dismissal of the employees.
These, she said, must include, among other things, robust and unambiguous public statements from both the government of the day and the Opposition PPP/C, specifically condemning the dismissal of the striking workers and calling on the management of BCGI to respect the laws of Guyana with regard to trade union membership and the rights and entitlements appended thereto.
This, McDonald said, should be followed immediately by a meeting between government and the management of BCGI, to follow through on details surrounding their public call and the re-establishment of clear guidelines and understanding of RUSAL/BCGI’s need for compliance with all of Guyana’s industrial laws and practices.
This is imperative, McDonald noted, if the company is to continue enjoying the goodwill of government and be at harmony with the Guyanese society. Details, she said, will also include: unconditional reinstatement of the dismissed workers; respecting the workers’ recognised Union of choice, following the instructions issued by the Department of Labour; respect the workers’ right to strike; the need to sit at the table to negotiate with the Union the Terms of Resumption which must include no break in service, no penalties or recriminations.
Added to this, she indicated the immediate dispatch to the BCGI management of communication notifying them of an impending visit to the work site by a delegation comprising officials of the Ministries of Social Protection and Natural Resources, and the GB&GWU, to engage management and workers [including the dismissed workers] in meetings with a view to their reinstatement, and to the formal recognition of the GB&GWU as the union representing the BCGI workers.

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