An Oil and Gas workers’ union should be established and it should be mandatory that all local employees be a part of it

Jul 14, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I have been residing in Guyana for over two decades and witnessed a lot of misfortunes happening to the citizens of this beautiful nation.
My focus today is on the opportunity presented to the people of the lovely nation, Oil and Gas, which could help the country move forward, once the resources are managed efficiently, which I currently believe is not going to happen under the rulership of either the PPP or the Coalition.
Oil and Gas is known around the world as one of the richest sectors to work or be a part of. Luckily for Guyana, it has one of the largest finds in history. Speaking of history, let us take a moment to focus on our Caricom sister, Trinidad, for a country that has been operating in the Oil and Gas sector for nearly half a century, they are no better than Guyana, in many ways. Some are even worse than Guyana. This is all due to poor management as well as allowing the “Oil Giants” to drain the country’s resources and the country gaining little to nothing.
There are some that believe that a little bit of something is better than nothing. But that analogy should not be attributed to the Oil and Gas sector. Why? Simple, the value of it is extremely high.
With all that being said, I would like to focus on one major aspect, the local employees in the Oil and Gas sector. While I understand our nation is new to the field and the majority of the companies will need to be flooded with expats, it would be nice to see one of the purposes these expats serve is to train the local personnel to replace them in a few years time. This lovely country has been prostituted time and time again by corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen and every day that we do not stop this from happening is one day too late to fix it.
The value of Oil and Gas in Guyana is the same as the value of Oil and Gas in any other country and as such, the country and the local citizens should be treated with the same level of value. I am almost certain, Guyanese Oil and Gas employees are being highly underpaid by their employers, when compared to an American, Russian, Italian, Swiss or even an Englishman, who shares the same job, titles and responsibilities for an Oil and Gas company.
Aside from the fact that Guyana is losing in the Oil and Gas sector, with that excuse of a deal they agreed to with ExxonMobil, the local employees are working for free when compared to if they brought in expats to do the jobs.
A lot of these companies include clauses in their employment contracts which enable them to terminate an employee’s contract without cause or questioning. This should be illegal. Who is there to represent these local employees? The Guyana Workers Union? They are an excuse of what a Union should be and they are also corrupt.
An Oil and Gas workers’ union should be established and it should be mandatory that all local employees be a part of this Union. Guyanese need to be represented by someone who would fight for them. Guyanese need to stand up for themselves, employment should not be a form of slavery. An employee should be confident enough to speak up against oppressive employers, not only in the Oil and Gas sector, but in every sector.

Sincerely,
Lonesome Larry

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