TUC set to take public position on right of oil and gas workers to join unions

Voice of labour

A week after citing what he said was an anti-union clause in the employment agreement of the company, TOTALTEC Oilfield Services Guyana Inc, General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis has told the Stabroek Business that the trade union umbrella body will be seeking to express “more detailed sentiments on the matter of the relationship between local employees and foreign employers connected to the oil and gas sector.”

Asserting that he was “somewhat surprised” that “in this day and age” a foreign company seeking to employ Guyanese workers here in Guyana had “so explicitly opted to include what in effect is an anti-union sentiment in its employment contract,” Lewis said that the views that he will express are likely to include a recommendation that firms wishing to work here, in oil and gas or any other area, be briefed on the laws of Guyana and include those that have to do with the workers’ right to be members of unions of their choice.