Employees of the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) say they are being coerced to join a new union, which intends to challenge the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) to be the recognized bargaining unit at the company.
BCGI, a subsidiary of Rusal, and the GB&GWU have been at loggerheads since May 2009. The dispute intensified in November 2009, when over 300 workers came together and staged strikes at the Kwakwani and Aroaima sites after the GB&GWU and the BCGI failed to reach a satisfactory agreement on wages. Later, the BCGI began distributing suspension letters to some of the employees, saying they had abandoned their workplace without reason. A few days later, the majority of the workers returned to work while 57 were dismissed.
