By Peter R. Ramsaroop, MBA CEO, AFC
Introduction
Imagine a foreign company in our country can arbitrarily cancel a collective labour agreement and our government would actually support such a move. Negotiations with foreign companies must be very specific allowing for fair incentives but never compromising on the rights of our people.
There is something called corporate governance that must be adhered to by all companies and even more so from companies that are allowed into our country to extract our mineral resources. Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the many stakeholders involved and the goals for which the corporation is governed. The principal stakeholders are the shareholders, management, and the board of directors. Other stakeholders include employees who are the citizens of Guyana. The AFC’s vision is to see a stable and coherent relationship among the various stakeholders – similar to the German corporate governance model.
The recent impasse between RUSAL and workers is a violation of two fundamental motivating principles that underpins national development and cohesion as we have been advocating for many years. These principles are:
(i) We must promote a caring relationship, shared responsibility, and joint social purpose between labour (and their unions) and the essential capitalist or investor class. We in the AFC believe that labour and capitalist investors, in real production rather than finance speculators, must be the primary focus of the joint social purpose and partnership.
(ii) Our economic policies will be aimed at enhancing the productivity of our people, firms and industries. We realize that the only way to increase the wage – and hence welfare – of Guyanese in the long term is through the enhanced productivity of labour and capital.
The PPP government, which claims it is pro-working class, has chosen to side with a corporation, which has apparently not been fair to its workers and the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union. We are of the view that all avenues have not been exhausted that can bring about immediate improvements in the welfare of workers without compromising profitability.
RUSAL has threatened plant closure saying workers would be responsible if such an event occurred. However, we should note that RUSAL has not pursued the kind of capital investments the bauxite industry needed to enhance productivity. Good corporate governance calls for investment back into the industry and its supporting communities.
Agreements
Without the Freedom of Information Act as proposed by the AFC, Guyanese will not be privy to what was negotiated between the government and RUSAL and other foreign companies. Among the features we should look for in such agreements which are crucial, are mandatory hiring of qualified Guyanese first when available, adherence to all Guyanese labour laws to protect workers’ rights and facilitate investment. Our policy would also require investors in Guyana, where applicable, to hold training programmes to ensure that Guyanese can replace personnel who may have to be recruited from abroad to fill specialist vacancies.
The PPP has not developed a coherent foreign policy, especially in relation to attracting, maintaining interest, and negotiating with foreign companies for direct investments. It is yet to understand how foreign policy really is part of Guyana’s economic development. We have the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) through which we could sell products like ethanol to the United States. We can also sell agro-processed goods to the US. Yet the PPP government is busy building a cozy relationship with Venezuela, which claims 5/8 of Guyana’s territory. We are dependent on that country for oil through PetroCaribe, and we need to sell our low yielding rice to that country. Now we are about to join with the Chavez government to fight the drugs underworld. At the same time we have snubbed the United States request for known Guyanese drugs dealers. If we continue on this path Venezuela will have a lot of leverage against Guyana.
Recently the PPP, famous for its strategy of accepting foreign aid, turned down the very important proposed security deal with Great Britain. Imagine this government, which is busy surrendering Guyana’s leverage over Essequibo, for unclear benefits (the MOU with Norway) invoked nationalistic sentiments to turn down the grant funded British help. Guyana is a country of unsolved crimes and murders, yet this government rejects a security cooperation pact with the UK. What is the government afraid of?
Conclusion
Guyanese need a government that governs in the interest of all Guyanese, which facilitates and encourages foreign investment that benefits Guyana. We must concentrate on developing our land in order to create value jobs for our citizens. We cannot afford to have a government that sides with companies that intimidate workers not to exercise their rights. This is not the economic vision we see for Guyana. Until next time “Roop”
Send comments to peter.Ramsaroop@gmail.com
