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Saying GAWU is independent and impartial has no weight when there is no proof of same
DEAR EDITOR,
I waited patiently for the reply of GAWU’s General Secretary Seepaul Narine, to my letter “The GAWU/PPP relationship is unhealthy”, because I seriously wanted to see the defence he would have mounted, given his glorious ability to write millions of letters at every mention of GAWU’s name.
Editor, Mr. Narine has nonetheless failed miserably to defend against the letter that described truthfully that:
1. GAWU is the trade union arm created and controlled by the People’s Progressive Party.
2. All senior functionaries of the union have always come from the PPP
3. That the union collected billions of dollars in dues from sugar workers
4. That the union failed to inform its membership and the country that it was the PPP’s (Jagdeo’s) investment into the non-functioning state-of-the-art Skeldon mega Factory of US$200M (more than the Cheddi Jagan International Airport project) that put the final blow on a shattered and already broken sugar industry
5. The union failed aggressive resistance against the destruction of the sugar industry under the PPP
6. It is the State, who after all of this, has to pay the more than 22,000 sugar workers represented by the PPP’s trade union, GAWU
Editor, it was never my intention to “tarnish” the GAWU, but to state factual information that more than shows an incestuous relationship between the union and the PPP, and the almost impossible task that the government has, trying to convince sugar workers that serious and drastic measures had to be taken to stabilise an industry that tax payers were holding up while receiving nothing in return.
It was my intention, rather, to show how the union, controlled by a party executive and other PPP members and sympathisers, could be and is being used by the PPP as a tool to hold the government to ransom.
What is more concerning and upsetting to me as a citizen, tax payer and non-supporter of the PPP is that this party with an awful and dangerous leadership has this massive power to play/control over 22,000 citizens (sugar workers) while the State has to use tax dollars to pay them. How can a political party control a union whose membership is paid by the State? That is my real concern.
Editor, Mr. Narine regurgitated a lot of rhetoric that GAWU cares for sugar workers; that they have always stood for sugar workers etc. etc. He made no real statement to dismantle the issues I have listed above, because they are the cold hard facts.
I however respond to Mr. Narine’s suggesting that I probably think that the Union is too critical of the Government. Not at all, Sir, I too am critical of the government. I never gave the impression that the Union is too critical of the government, I however indicated that the Union is not in a genuine place in its utterances and acts toward its members or the government, because of its bloodline relationship to the PPP. And to the fact that GAWU would more than likely be true to its political parents, the PPP, ahead of those it should truly serve.
Saying the Union is independent and impartial has no weight when there is no proof of same, and in this case, the facts against GAWU are listed. And no Mr. Narine, I do not expect any Union to sit by when its workers are out of jobs, but GAWU knows the truth about the sugar industry and their embattled position in all of this.
GAWU/PPP wants the government to give sugar workers more work, GAWU/PPP wants the government to rehire and reopen the estates, but why wouldn’t they? In my opinion, sugar workers have always been PPP pawns to be used as political bait.
I strongly believe too that the GAWU may very well play a key role for the PPP during campaign time or where other party events or activities are held, so yes, they’ll keep sugar workers like puppets on a string. After all, GAWU and the PPP have the most to lose if they can no longer control the 22,000 membership.
Peter Joseph
Local Observer
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