Talks between Russian bauxite company, RUSAL and the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU) have been stalled for over two months as the Ministry of Social Protection’s Labour Department has failed to facilitate the talks.
General Secretary of the GB&GWU Lincoln Lewis yesterday told Stabroek News that they have been looking forward to the engagement between themselves and the bauxite company but to date there has been no communication from the Labour Department on a possible date.
Lewis said they have been meeting with workers, who are eager for a resolution to the issue but he also noted workers have been frustrated over the lengthy and drawn out process over talks.
Since February last year, GB&GWU and RUSAL-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc have been meeting on a range of issues including the termination of the services of some workers and wages and salaries negotiations. These meetings follow the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two after the intervention of the Department of Labour. There has, however, been little if any progress on the wages question.
“The company,” according to a briefing document seen by this newspaper, has “attempted to impose a 1% wages increase for 2019 after a 2% imposition for 2018 and 3% for 2017.” The document asserts that “as a result of the meagre increases imposed by the company over the years 2009-2018, wages at RUSAL have fallen dramatically below those at BOSAI (the gap is approximately 46%) and the union has been clamouring for parity of wages in the industry and for wages at RUSAL to be significantly increased to give effect to this.”
RUSAL owns 90 per cent of the Aroaima, Berbice-based BCGI. The company’s operations are located on the Berbice River between Kwakwani and Linden, with persons from those areas making up the majority of its workforce.
Lewis in a previous report that said that the union will not accept less than what its current agreement with the company states and if the company feels that working in Guyana is not profitable and it cannot pay workers their due, then it should pack up and leave this country.
“The union is not prepared to breach the agreement we signed with BCGI and we are prepared to honour it to the letter; we will not relent,” Lewis told Stabroek News in an interview.
“Industrial relations has nothing to do with RUSAL’s attitude, nothing. The question of the industrial relations issue is a red herring by the company. Nobody called for labour stoppage. All we are saying is honour the contract. You can’t come to an agreement then don’t want to go to arbitration. If you are confident you are doing so bad, go to the arbitration panel and convince them that you can’t pay,” he added.
In February last year, workers spent 15 days protesting for a wage increase. Disgruntled workers had blocked the Berbice River, preventing the company’s barges from transporting bauxite.
