Bosai workers downed tools over failed salary increase negotiations

Oct 22, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Workers attached to the Bosai Minerals Group Guyana (BMGG), on Monday, downed tools after negotiations between their union, the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers’ Union and management of the company ended in deadlock. Scores of workers staged protest action in front of the company’s bauxite plant entrance at Mackenzie, with support from the union.

The BOSAI workers in protest mode

Mr. Whitney Graham, the Union representative for the workers, told Kaieteur News, that workers are calling for nothing less than an eight percent increase. However, the company ended negotiations at 5.5 percent for 2021 and 6.5 percent for 2022. “The union is not settling for less than eight percent, we are also protesting against the snack allowance and the night premium,” Graham posited.
Workers speaking under the cover of anonymity, said they are dissatisfied with the increase given without negotiation, more so that they risked their lives throughout the pandemic, to keep the company’s operations going. They also considered the rising cost of living amongst other things. “Cost of living gone up by 14 percent, car fare raise, gas price keep jumping; throughout this pandemic, we worked through, we have to buy our own respirator and PPE gears, management is not showing no appreciation for the workers,” one employee said.
“Every year for us to reach an agreement for salary increase, we have to always strike, management claiming they are not making money and that is not true. Throughout the pandemic, production kept going, ships keep coming, and so we are not accepting any reason that we are in a pandemic, because BOSAI was not affected,” another employee said.
The workers accused BOSAI’s Manager, Eric Yu, for having no regard for the labour laws and for governmental authorities, as infractions the Government of Guyana requested the company to resolve in three months, one being changing casual workers status over two years to permanent, have not been fixed. In a correspondence sent to workers, Management of the company blamed the economic hardships brought on by the pandemic for not being able to give a larger increase, and explained that the company is currently in survival mode.
Workers plan to continue the strike, until negotiations are concluded in their favour.