“It would be a mistake for government to assume that respect for workers’ rights can be traded for foreign investment since that assumption is probably likely to leave us worse off as a society than if we have no foreign investment at all,” General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis has told the Stabroek Business.
On Wednesday, in the second of two successive interviews with this newspaper, Lewis said that evidence of transgression of workers’ rights “and in some instances disregard for environmental protocols had surfaced at workplaces… of foreign-controlled companies. I don’t think there is any doubt that there is no correlation between the body of evidence that exists to this effect and the effort being made by government to ensure that workers’ rights and the laws of the land are respected.”
The GTUC General Secretary said he had “particularly good reason to point to the Rusal majority-owned bauxite-mining company, Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI)…. I have a particular concern with BCGI. I have said in a previous interview that they are as bad an example as exists today in Guyana of shabby industrial relations practice. BCGI is governed by a climate of fear, intimidation. I know. I have been there. The workers are members of a union that I represent [the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU)] and I am familiar with the tyranny that passes for management.”
Lewis said he believed that the time had come to shift the focus of criticism “from the tyrannical practices of the Russian managers at BCGI” to what he described as “a posture that resembles indifference on the part of the government. When you look at the situation what other conclusion can you come to?”
And according to the labour leader, the government was running the risk of being accused of emulating its predecessor “by putting investor access ahead of the quality of treatment received by workers.”
Meanwhile, according to Lewis “there is no reason why investment agreements should not include, as a priority, clauses that speak loudly and strongly to issues of worker representation and the treatment of workers including issues of work environment, rest, recreation and the environment in which they live and work. If we are serious about these things one has every reason to believe that investors will comply.”
He said an official posture “that indulges disregard for workers” could have the opposite of what might be perceived to the intended effect. “If we were to follow closely the industrial relations codes in developed countries we will find that there are instances where foreign private sector investment in countries that have poor labour relations records is discouraged. More than that and as I have said in a previous interview poor labour standards as reflected in what goes on at BCGI can attract negative attention from the International Labour Organisation (ILO)”
Lewis said that “by bluntly refusing to engage the GB&GWU, the recognized representative of the workers the BCGI management has, among other things, demonstrated a disregard for the government and the laws of the land. Frankly, this company continues to be an embarrassment to our country,” he added.
