GuySuCo and GWI, different constituencies, different deliveries

Jun 11, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I write this letter knowing that for some it will not see the light of day and for others the author will be their focus, however, it would be remiss of me not to address the termination of over 170 GWI workers. These terminations will impact the lives of far more than 170 persons and exemplifies the duplicity of policies that are applied to different constituencies of our society. For demonstrative purposes, I will juxtapose the treatment of the GuySuCo workers to that of the GWI workers.
GuySuCo workers work in a company that is profit oriented, while the GWI workers work in the service sector that is non-profit, but service oriented. In the case of GuySuCo, the orientation of the company: profit, is taken out of the equation in the name of livelihood and the historic contribution of those workers to Guyana’s development. While, in the case of GWI service delivery is trumped over livelihood. GuySuCo has been and continues to be heavily subsidised many fold more than GWI, but the workers of GWI are retrenched in the interest of acclaimed restructuring and efficiency.
GuySuCo, whose mandate is wealth creation, has now become a mechanism for wealth redistribution and the sustainability of livelihood while GWI, a service organisation whose existence is more akin to wealth redistribution, is being used to curtail both wealth redistribution and the sustainability of livelihood.
GWI’s management, in Pontius Pilot-like fashion, fingers the Board as being integral to the decision and touts prudence in management as the decisive factor, it also cites due process as the legitimate basis for the terminations. What is patently missing in the equation is the difference in policy as it relates to GuySuCo workers and GWI workers. In the case of GuySuCo, the workers livelihood is the determining factor. In the case of GWI, cost reduction is the determining factor. The GWI workers are expendable.
Both organisations are state owned, but the Government applies different criteria in determining the future of the undertakings and that of their workers, in particular. Due process is the excuse for treating the GWI workers different, at the level of governance (decision-making), and is being used to cover-up what are discriminatory policies and practices when it comes to the well-being of the GWI workers.
The comparison of GuySuCo and GWI is but one example of the duplicity that has been and is still evident in the conduct of public affairs in Guyana. My argument here is not in support of GWI workers versus GuySuCo workers. It is about fairness and for the President’s call for ONE GUYANA to be exemplified, indeed, as articulated in words.

Yours sincerely,
Vincent Alexander

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