Make 2014 Guyana’s ‘Year for Workers’ – Granger

“Let us, therefore, make the new year – 2014 – Guyana’s ‘Year for Workers’ as we all work together towards providing ‘a good life for all Guyanese.’” This was the theme of the New Year’s message of Brigadier David Granger, Leader of the Opposition.

He stated, “Guyana’s ‘Year for Workers’ must dawn on 1st January 2014. This country’s economic future lies in their hands. Many of our working people, however, are underemployed and unhappy and are not as productive as they could be. Workers face unsatisfactory labour relations in the sugar and mining industries

David Granger
David Granger

and in the public and private sectors. Artisanal fisherfolk, craftsmen, small farmers and miners found themselves in difficult circumstances during 2013. Life must be better for all in 2014.”

The statement said that Guyana’s ‘Year for Workers’ must be one in which our working people should be able to look forward to a good life. It should be one in which they could look forward to living in safety, to working for ‘living wages’ to cope with the cost of living and to enjoying adequate social protection in their old age.

Granger continued, “Guyana’s ‘Year for Workers’ must be one in which workers can feel free to join trade unions of their choice; in which collective bargaining agreements between their employers and their unions will be respected and in which the state will enforce labour laws fairly but firmly to protect them from adversity and from delinquent employers.”