The Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU) and the RUSAL-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI) began talks on Wednesday to chart the way forward consistent with the Terms of Resumption (ToR) that ended a month-long workers’ strike on March 20th.
“GB&GWU is approaching the engagement with (an) open mind, fully aware of the acrimonious past and that healing, and the restoration of trust require time, honesty and constructive engagement between the parties. Same was verbally communicated to the BCGI delegation, who was attentive, interactive and receptive to a number (of) issues raised by the union’s delegation,” the union said in a statement yesterday in which it informed that a preliminary meeting was held on Wednesday at BCGI’s headquarters in Queenstown, Georgetown.
BCGI/RUSAL’s four-man team included two resident managers and two who came from Moscow specifically for the meeting, the statement said. It added that the union’s five-man delegation comprised Leslie Gonsalves, President; Lincoln Lewis, General Secretary; Wayne Coppin, Assistant Secretary; Ephraim Velloza, Branch President; and Leslie Junor, Branch Secretary.
