A faction of the local trade union movement is rejecting assurances by the government that the world financial crisis is having no effect on Guyana, calling it irresponsible.

Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) President Patrick Yarde told a press conference yesterday that no country could consider itself isolated and he received the backing of Chairman of the Workers Group of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Sir Roy Trotman, who refused to accept that Guyana will be totally unaffected by the crisis. At the conference called to address Caribbean labour’s response to the global crisis, Yarde told reporters that there was no way he could accept that Guyana was isolated from the crisis.

He said there is poverty in Guyana and the explanations that have been made cite the inability to pay reasonable benefits as a result of the limitation of resources. “We always have a crisis here,” Yarde said. “It is just irresponsible to take a view that we are isolated…”

Supporting Yarde’s stance, Trotman said based on his discussions along the corridors of the ILO, there was no country that was inoculated from the crisis.  “No country will be exempted or is immune from this crisis. It will not finish at Christmas, so far as I am concerned we are now entering into this crisis,” he said.

Trotman who is also General Secretary of the Barbados Workers Union is here in Guyana on a short visit during which he will meet the different unions as part of the regional union solidarity efforts.

However, addressing the issue of the global crisis, he pointed out that a meaningful response generally and the Caribbean, in particular, would not be possible unless its leaders involved the trade union movement, the appropriate employer organisations and other key stakeholders in the meaningful social dialogue.

He further noted that the establishment of a recovery strategy would have to be geared at creating employment with decent wages consistent with the Decent Work Agenda of the ILO and also at increasing aggregate demand thus spurring production.

He insisted too that there will have to be full respect for ILO conventions which call for freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively, fundamental principles and rights at work as well as the declaration concerning social justice.

He pointed out that it is imperative that any action directed at addressing the crisis gain the support of all sections of the population. He added that the governments of the Caribbean must ensure that they implement programmes to bring about fair regulation of the market and to discourage “casino gambling” with the lives of working men and women and their families.

Further, he said it was also in the interest of good governance that governments in the region open the flow of information in order for there to be transparency, accountability and responsibility, which are pre-requisites for satisfactory social dialogue and progress in the region. He pointed out that the aim of such a process should be to render any strategy pursued more relevant to the changing circumstances and challenges which the crisis represents.