Degeneracy: Trade unionism in Guyana in 2020

May 02, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Yesterday was Labour Day. Fate works wonders. Covid-19 prevented another manifestation of incredible hypocrisy. It would be interesting if a survey could be taken of how Guyanese feel about this particular day.
What goes through the head of any citizen that year after year, they look out their window, turn on their television set or read the newspaper and they see and read those speeches every year coming from the same people who say the same things and have been saying the same things for decades now and there seem to be no prospect in the future of these people retiring or being voted out of their trade union positions.
This year trade unionism took an ugly, nasty turn in a self-destructive direction. One of the leading defenders of the worst form of election rigging is the General Secretary of the TUC, Lincoln Lewis. Mr. Lewis has been the General Secretary for decades now and there seems no possibility that in the coming decades he will retire. Mr. Lewis is going into his late seventies.
Mr. Lewis is the TUC, the TUC is Mr. Lewis. For decades now, no one in the TUC writes a letter to the press, comments on issues of national importance but Lewis. Since Clairmont Mingo, Roxanne Myers, Chief Election Officer Lowenfield and GECOM Commissioner Claudette Singh, shocked the world with the things they have done, one person stands out as the defender of any and everything the GECOM conspirators do – the TUC strongman, Lincoln Lewis. No one in the entire country, no one in the entire leadership of the APNU+AFC so frenetically defends the process of rigging the 2020 elections the past two months as the General Secretary
This country has seen the essence of Lewis’ temperament and one has to put on the table for discussion, the future of trade unionism in this land after Lewis’ shameless descent into the gutter of rigged election. As I write this column here, the US Ambassador has again warned that no transparent election in Guyana will generate sanctions. The Barbadian Prime Minister has to have read about the delaying tactics of the GECOM conspirators that Lewis defends. She says she expects a credible, transparent recount without delay. The Barbadian PM will be sadly disappointed. There isn’t going to be a credible recount. There isn’t going to be the conceding of defeat by APNU+AFC. I could end up being wrong but the ugly stratagems by Singh and company the past two months tell a tragic story of Guyana’s destiny.
How can decent, employees accept a trade union leader that has no respect for democratic norms? If you do not embrace the right of workers to vote for an entity of their choice and have their votes counted, how can you be trusted to uphold the principles of trade unionism?
I remind readers of this column, it was not Frederick Kissoon that threatened to pull his union out of the TUC umbrella over Lewis undemocratic behaviour over the industrial dispute at UG last year. It was done by the two UG unions which included the country’s top academics. In those two unions, Guyana needs to be reminded that only one East Indian was in the leadership so the UG fiasco was not an ethnically driven contest.
The head of the teacher’s union, Coretta Mc Donald, became an APNU+AFC candidate in the March 2 election. I don’t agree. I believe trade unions in the aftermath of the demise of colonialism should not become part of the power structure. It is a conflict of interest that we have seen for over 25 years with GAWU.
The last time I saw or spoke with the head of GAWU, the late, Komal Chand was on the occasion of Donald Rodney’s vigil outsides the Court of Appeal, November last year. We landed outside the court but didn’t have placards and markers. I suggested to Tacuma Ogunseye that he approach GAWU, whose office is next door. He declined. So I went.
Komal is someone I had known for over forty five years but he was in no mood to offer support. He chastised me for my criticism of him and I told him that I stand by what I believe in – trade unionists should be independent of the power structure because the power structure will use them to preserve power. Burnham used the GLU and the PPP used GAWU. How can you expect to fight for teachers’ rights when your leader is the president of the country who does not support the teachers’ struggle? We saw that last year when the government tried to impose an arbitrator on the teachers.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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Degeneracy: Trade unionism in Guyana in 2020

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