Dear Editor,
I was at the Critchlow Labour College when I observed Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds; Mr Winston Brassington, Head of NICIL; Mr Christopher Ram and a few other well-known Guyanese including the leader of the Guyana Trades Union Congress. In fact I wanted to see Mr Witter but was informed that he would be in at a meeting with stakeholders on the labour issues which have developed as a result of over 200 Chinese nationals being employed on the Marriott project bypassing jobless Guyanese.
I felt good, for in my mind I could only visualize one possible result from that meeting: a further erosion of the Government posture that Guyanese are not qualified to work on this project especially in an environment of high unemployment and underemployment. This was not to be and it is only today one week after that meeting that I have summoned the courage to deal with what can be described as nothing short of non-leadership displayed by the representatives of Guyanese Labour.
Kaieteur News’ headline the next day indicated that our labour leaders hailed the fact that they have been able to get the Government leaders to concede, that in future projects Guyanese workers would be given priority.
What is bothersome is that those people who sat in that room and allowed Sam Hinds and company to convince them that the Marriott project is too important to be delayed, did not take into account the PPP/C’s track record on agreements made in times of crisis.
Former President Desmond Hoyte expressed disgust at their behaviour after two such agreements, in which his language clearly said that he felt duped. The people of Linden are trying to find out where they blundered in the latest of such agreements, and the list can go on.
In other words I am saying that they failed the Guyanese working class, who are of the opinion that the Marriott in the first place is not a priority.
The kokers in Georgetown are among the priorities which the PPP/C have no consideration for. The position adopted by our labour leaders as a result of that meeting is one which I could not have envisaged, especially since the Marriott project did not get Parliamentary approval to spend resources owned by the Guyanese working class. The fact that this project is simply there as a facility to provide work for non-Guyanese and is based on an illegal investment of our funds is enough reason to delay if not stop it, so I am yet to understand the logic of the representatives of Labour.
However let us fast forward to two of the major projects in the future, in which the Chinese would be involved.
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Amaila Falls Hydroelectric facility, the road to it and the power transmission line
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The Upgrading of the Cheddi Jagan Airport
Both of these projects are being financed in a large way by the Chinese, as was Guysuco’s Skeldon project, a project on which Chinese technology and labour performed poorly.
Hence my question is. What would the Government of Guyana say to the Chinese Government, the Chinese banks and the Chinese contracting firms that they could not have said to the present contractor who is building the Marriott, using finances owned in large part by the Guyanese workers?
We should note at the said meeting the Government side dropped the argument of the lack of skilled Guyanese and for the first time revealed that they simply gave the contractor the right to source workers, from any which way.
Earlier press reports indicated that there was a secret deal with respect to the airport project, when things are done in secret there is no telling what would result. The Marriott was also done in secret. Hence on this I would ask the representatives of Labour and the Government of Guyana what is the acceptable minimum benchmark percentage of the labour force on these future projects that must be Guyanese born? On the other hand what levels should be exclusively Chinese?
Yours faithfully,
Elton McRae
