Rusal again refuses to sit with union -Workers continue blocking of Berbice River

Mar 05, 2019 News

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Pack up and ship out if you don’t want to talk.
That is the message trade unions of Guyana have sent to Rusal/Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) after another attempt to bring the company and the union to the table failed once again.

Rusal officials insisted yesterday that they are not talking to the union once Lincoln Lewis, the General Secretary, is there.
Rusal fired 61 workers last month after objections to a measly one percent increase. Some 30 more were let go even as Government tried to intervene.
Workers were angry that their bargaining representative, the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU), was not consulted and worse yet, the union has been derecognized.
The company and workers are at a standoff with operations at almost a standstill. The company has attempted to work with a skeleton staff, but residents of Kwakwani, a nearby community to the Kurubuka mine, in the Berbice River, have blocked the waterway with wire ropes and drums.
Fired workers have been refusing to leave the Aroaima location where Rusal is providing housing.
The Department of Labour and Government had met to diffuse the situation, but in vain.
Yesterday, a meeting was scheduled at the Department of Labour between Chief Labour Officer, the union and the company. However, Rusal stuck to its guns and insisted no meeting would be held with the union.
General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Coretta McDonald, who was one of the representatives of other unions that are attempting to diffuse the situation, and who was present for the meeting, was exasperated.
She said that the union rejected calls for unblocking of the river.
“Unless the union is recognized, there will be no talks…no unblocking of the river,” she told Kaieteur News.
The Berbice River is where their mined bauxite is moved to vessels at the New Amsterdam area.

According to McDonald, Rusal is to submit a document to Government now and this will be transmitted to the GB&GWU.
“We appreciate the stand of Government. However, we are disappointed that the necessary clauses and laws that can be invoked, were not. The Department of Labour is a little too slow and is accommodating them, where the company does not want to sit and recognize the union.”
According to the union leader, it is a show of disrespect for Guyana.
“If it was the other way around…if Guyanese had owned a company in Russia…a quarter of what they did would not have been tolerated.”
She said that from indications, the company is willing to pay a number of vessels loaded with bauxite, $1M a day, to stick around, rather than engage the workers.
“Workers saying to them sit at the table and bargain or pack up and ship out.”
A government statement said that Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, with responsibility for Labour, Keith Scott, shortly after meeting with the parties separately, made it clear that Rusal will eventually have to meet with the union.
According to Minister Scott, Rusal will have to meet with the union to return to the “status quo.” He restated that the government’s core interest at this point is the well-being of its citizens.

“As a government, our biggest concern has to be our workers, and that comes first. While we are pro-investors and like to encourage investment, we must maintain a stable industrial climate. Our country comes first, and that is a priority,” he told the media.
Minister Scott said the aluminum company is expected to present some proposals they have to the government, which will be shared with the union. He said a decision will be made soon after.
Minister of Social Protection, Amna Ally, had argued at previous meetings with workers and Rusal, that the GB&GWU is a legitimate body and must be respected by any company operating in Guyana.
Without prior notification, the two representatives, Director of Aluminum and Bauxite Department, Vladimir Permyakov and Personnel Manager, Mikhail Krupenin, turned up at the Labour Department’s Brickdam office, but told Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle, that they will not meet the workers’ representative in the presence of Union President, Lincoln Lewis.
Meanwhile, Lewis, who is also General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, said that while the request is unfortunate, he will not heed the call from Rusal.
“I am not prepared to do that. Recuse, for what?” he asked. “They came and met me here; they will have to leave me here.”
He said it is clear his stance has made the company very uncomfortable.
The union has been resolute in its request to meet with the aluminum company, especially since there has not been a Collective Bargaining Agreement within the last ten years.
It would not have been the first time that Rusal has fired staffers on a mass scale.
In 2009, 57 workers, including supervisors, were fired for participating in a strike for better pay and conditions. The current situation has raised troubling questions about the seemingly soft attitude by Government against a company that has shown no respect for workers.
The unions have all banded together in a show of oneness against Rusal.
They picketed Rusal’s Queenstown office last week.
Rusal has operations in the Upper Berbice River, Region 10, with over 540 workers.

 

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