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Labour Day
(Kaieteur News) – We join with workers across Guyana who gather to honour hard-earned progress made, sacrifices made, developments that led to respect for Guyanese labour. It is compulsory for workers and their representatives to vigilantly safeguard their precious gains. Part of the indigestible bitterness of Guyanese labour, in this new era of being citizens in oil rich Guyana, is that those who once stood solidly alongside workers and their rights, they are among those who squeeze and grab those rights back from them. When the State should be viewed by workers as their biggest asset, too often it has turned out to be among the most villainous.
There is a loud rallying cry, with jobs featuring constantly. It is about new jobs created, how Guyanese families are much better off, because they have more to spend. About how in a booming economy all are welcome, all can find a place in the job market. Despite the lavish claims, there are able-bodied and available Guyanese who are thwarted, denied, and effectively locked out of the job market. Their enemy is not lack of the required qualifications, or less than the experience needed. Their enemy is their politics, their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of association, freedom of political choice. The sad reality is that those who have not openly identified with the PPPC Government, or have a known relationship with the main Opposition groups, have just had a door slammed into their faces. They need not apply, they should not turn up, while those who are still in the job ranks are advised to tread carefully, say little, and do their best not to be seen.
It would be helpful if government leaders could offer some rationale about why there are so many Guyanese who have been out of a job in the last six years, since the PPPC returned to power. Further, it is an open secret that those who have offended the government do poorly in their attempts to find a job in the private sector. There is a seeming blacklist in operation, and all that is required is private sector awareness that someone is an activist for social change and justice, and that almost automatically makes them unemployable. Few are the private sector employers who seek to attract the anger of government leaders and party functionaries.
In a new area of the private sector, migrant labour is used to undercut Guyanese. It is cheaper and more exploitable, with a captive workforce at the fingertips of ruthless Guyanese middlemen and exploiters. When holding the passports of migrants is seen as a necessary step to force them to submit to unjust and unlawful working arrangements, then foreign labour wins out, while Guyanese workers lose out. This is a growing phenomenon that is coming out of the shadows, but about which the government has been silent, pretends at ignorance, and is largely hands-off.
The minimum wage for private sector workers remains solidly riveted at $60,447 a month. If there isn’t the reprieve of a full-time second job, or a handful of little side jobs, to provide some extra earnings, the minimum wage is a death sentence that has extended month after month, for three years. It is a miracle that Guyanese families survive on such a minimum wage where already high prices for most household items are rising. The public sector minimum wage/salary level is hardly something to celebrate. Starting from around the mid-$90,000s monthly, public sector salary levels are definitely better than equivalent earnings in the private sector. What we at this paper would like to know is which family of four can live at a decent standard on $100,000 monthly, when cost-of-living is such a challenging ordeal in Guyana?
Also, how does a government that got its political beginnings from the grassroots, could have changed to such an unfriendly force that strikes at the very heart of workers’ aspirations in Guyana? In an oil enriched labour environment, Guyanese workers should be kings commanding their own destiny. That is still a long way off, thanks to the collusions between government and private capital, with local workers as perennial victims.
On a day honouring past labour stalwarts, ordinary Guyanese workers lose confidence, fear the future.
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