Dear Editor,
It is not a good sign to see the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) appealing to the Ethnic Relations Commission for justice, redress, or an investigation into its industrial dispute with the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. The news of this appeal is reaching distant parts of the world. I received the press release from the UK. The appeal can mean that the union has lost confidence in the Minister of Labour, who has long been accused of neglecting certain issues. A really conscious Minister of Labour would have put his foot down on the closure of the Critchlow Labour College and of course would have ensured that it was carrying out its mission. This letter is a small act of solidarity with the bauxite workers and their families.
The big point that comes out of a study of the representation made in the letter is that the denial of rights to 57 bauxite workers, whoever they are, is affecting a given well-known community of a majority of African Guyanese, and thus comes to be seen as an issue of ethnic injustice. Once this point is made and the connections are stated the Government of Guyana may argue until the end of climate change without convincing anyone but itself. The government and their organs have gloated on their support from an ethnic group of Guyanese they, not I, named clearly. They placed themselves on record. Having failed to rebuke racial political bragging three years ago, President Jagdeo is in no position to rebuke anyone on this issue.
When this BG&GWU issue arose earlier, I argued that it was suspicious that a former Chief Labour Officer was at the time the industrial relations consultant of a company which was in partnership with the Government of Guyana. The WPA had alleged that arm-twisting by the foreign management had been employed to get workers to sign their own death warrants by executing their union. In the union’s words 57 workers were dismissed “without due process.”
I wrote then: “Mr Akeel says he has given the facts. Learning from him and borrowing his words, I ask, ‘if what he has written is correct, then is he saying that there was no case of Rusal employees being pressured by company officials, behind closed doors, to sign a petition?’ There were such allegations in the press, repeated in my letter. Mr Akeel in giving the facts has not challenged them.”
The acting General Secretary of the union claims that the Government of Guyana is at the centre of the difference in treatment given to the bauxite union and to the sugar union, the bauxite workers being mainly African and the sugar workers mainly Indian. This charge deserves an official statement.
While I feel that this claim may be justified, I know that there are members of the Indian community who live in fear of the PPP. I am sure that Mr Ravi Dev remembers the daylight thuggery outside his home on the West Demerara at a time when he was known not to be at home. With such experience he should not ignore, or seem to ignore the complaints of others.
At a time when it is clear that they cannot control the essential things affecting Guyanese, when thousands are exposed to the mercy of wild waters, floods and erratic winds, the PPP government is in various ways trying openly to manipulate the population using state power, and seeking advantage by once again sparking rivalries and the sense of being left out and being ignored.
It is flattering whom it can flatter, pressuring whom it can pressure, neglecting whom it can neglect and hoping to benefit when these responses are fed into the public space.
To me the most disgusting thing is that when the bauxite workers were led by non-elected leaders, the rank and file gave solidarity to the anti-dictatorial movement and ignored the fact that the chief offender was a person of the race of their majority. They also then received strong solidarity in their struggles from GAWU, the recognised sugar union. GAWU now enjoys a political relationship with the government.
It has its own problems with the new bunglers, but as the stronger party, if labour is still its priority, its voice on the side of the class will do a world of good. I am not asking it to support an opposition party, but workers’ organisations. The party of Walter Rodney and its activists, including those seen as concerned with African dignity, did much in the sugar belt to get non-PPP workers to join GAWU. I doubt that they regret doing that.
The bauxite and GB&GWU’s grievance which it claims affects a largely African community, is in the first place a labour matter. Since the majority of the National Assembly as recently as June 3 defended the Minister of Labour Mr Nadir in a no-confidence vote, he must be seen as carrying out government policy.
A meeting in London heard from a Guyanese trade unionist that the Minister had on August 13, 2010 most recently assured a delegation of his commitment to keep an agreement made by him on June 18 with the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions (ICEM). From the September 14, 2010 press release of the bauxite union, it seems that the agreement has come up against resistance at some level of government.
Yours faithfully,
Eusi Kwayana
