– PM says it’s a Ministry of Labour matter

The eventual fate of the 80 employees of the majority Russian-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) who were terminated following a strike for increased wages remains shrouded in uncertainty.

Public and political pressure mounts for the sacked workers to be reinstated and the status of the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) as the bargaining agent for the sacked BCGI employees also remains in limbo following the company’s stance last week that it was terminating its Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) and taking steps to have the union de-recognized.

Calls by opposition political parties and trade unions for the workers to be reinstated continue to attract no official response from the Government of Guyana, the minority shareholder in BCGI. When Stabroek News contacted Prime Minister Samuel Hinds on Tuesday, the cabinet minister responsible for the mining sector, would only say that any questions regarding the issue should be routed to the Ministry of Labour. The Prime Minister did not respond to enquiries as to whether government would intervene in the matter beyond the conventional intervention of the Ministry of Labour.

GB&GWU President Charles Sampson told Stabroek News however that the “high-handed” decision by the Russian management of BCGI , employees of the majority shareholder, Rusal, to dismiss the workers was now a matter in which the Government of Guyana ought to intervene more directly. “It really is a matter of us sending a strong message to the Rusal management that the decision to sack workers who take strike action is unacceptable,” Sampson said.

Sampson told Stabroek News that since the November 22 start of the dispute the industrial relations climate at BCGI’s Aroaima and Kwakwani operations have grown steadily worse. He said the company had compounded the situation by terminating the CLA and threatening to de-recognize the union “in the midst of the ongoing negotiations with the Ministry of Labour to settle the dispute that sparked the strike.”

Despite the move by BCGI to terminate its relationship with the GB&GWU, the situation regarding the standing of the union remains unclear. Earlier this week Stabroek News spoke with the union’s acting General Secretary Leslie Gonsalves who indicated during a telephone conversation that he was “on site at Aroaima” performing his duties as “a representative of the workers.” Indications are, however, that the BCGI’s Russian management have upped the ante by ceasing deduction of union dues from workers’ salaries through the conventional check-off system, a move which Gonsalves said had forced the union to resort to asking workers to pay their dues directly to the union. Gonsalves also disclosed that he had seen communication from the company seeking the signatures of the workers to a document that would effectively bring their membership of the union to an end.

While the Ministry of Labour is taking the position that the BCGI strike is over, Gonsalves said that a condition of “tension and uncertainty” obtained at both Kwakwani and Aroaima.

“The main issue here is the fact that 80 workers remain off the job and that these workers are people with families who live in mostly depressed communities. Those workers who are back on the job have returned out of fear for their livelihoods. All of this makes for an uncertain situation and one in which productivity is being seriously affected.  The company wants it to appear as though things are back to normal at BCGI. At this moment, however, there is an uneasy situation here and it is doing no one any good,” Gonsalves said.

Speaking with Stabroek News from his Linden office on Tuesday, Sampson said he believed that it was now up to the government to intervene to end the impasse. “As far as we are concerned there are still 80 workers off the job and until that issue is resolved an industrial dispute still exists,” he said.

Contacted for a comment Chief Labour Officer Yoganand Persaud said that the Ministry of Labour had received no formal notification from the GB&GWU requesting its intervention to address the repudiation by the company of the CLA or the decision by the company to terminate the services of 80 workers. He said the ministry’s initial involvement was related to the pay dispute and the original strike action by the workers and that as far as he was aware the strike had ended. However, Persaud appeared to leave the door open for further involvement by the ministry pointing out that the union was well aware of the procedures associated with seeking the intervention of the ministry in the matter.

However, an angry Sampson told Stabroek News that he was surprised that the Ministry of Labour was seeking formal communication from the union since, according to him, the current situation had unfolded in full view of the ministry.

“The letter from the company denouncing the Collective Labour Agreement was actually delivered to us on the premises of the ministry immediately prior to a scheduled meeting to discuss the dispute. The ministry cannot pretend to be in the dark on this matter,” Sampson said.

Asked whether he would comply with what Persaud said – that the Labour Ministry was prepared to entertain formal notification from the union on the current issues — Sampson said he was writing to the ministry immediately. “Although we believe that the Ministry of Labour ought to be taking a more proactive position on the matter based on what it already knows, we will be writing to them. We believe that we have a duty to seek to secure the rights and the jobs of all of our members and we are not about to make an issue over that.”

Meanwhile, Gonsalves said the bauxite union was still “contemplating its options” in relation to the current impasse. He said the return to work by those employees who sought to avoid losing their jobs could not be interpreted as an end to the dispute.

“The fact is that the company never allowed the negotiating process that had started to go forward. It acted in a manner that was evidently designed to intimidate the workers and in many cases its action secured the desired effect. This is a difficult economic climate and most of the workers here are from economically depressed communities. I think that the more important issue here now is whether the government will stand by and watch the rights of the workers being completely eroded by the company’s Russian management,” Gonsalves added.