While the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) has indicated its interest in resuming operations here on a smaller scale, Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton yesterday put the company and all others on notice that workers will not be taken advantage of under his watch.
“I will say that to RUSAL, like I would say to all companies under the restructured Ministry of Labour, workers will not be taken advantage of,” Hamilton told a news conference yesterday.
(BCGI) has met with Hamilton and Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn as well as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission.
Hamilton subsequently told this newspaper that while there were discussions involving the future of the company’s operations here, the longstanding labour dispute between the company’s management and workers was not raised.
However, the Labour Minister said that as they continue to engage BCGI, a subsidiary of Russian Aluminum (RUSAL), they will iron out the disagreements between labour and management of the company.
At a press conference yesterday, Hamilton was questioned about the dispute and he said he would like to hear from BCGI first before commenting in depth on the issue. However, he emphasised that his ministry is committed to ensuring workers’ rights are protected as provided for by the country’s laws.
“We will not allow expatriate or even local companies, we will not allow them to take advantage of the people and that is a fundamental issue. We will utilize the law to ensure that all of these companies respect the law, the constitution and the people,” Hamilton said.
During the press conference, Hamilton said that if RUSAL remains an investor in Guyana, their “game plan will have to be different from what it was over the past several years.”
He further noted that RUSAL and all other companies must have no objections to their workers’ choice to be represented by a representative group or union.
“Workers will not be denied their right to form representative organisations or to be represented by [a] union or unions of their choice. That is the policy position of the ministry and the policy position of the government,” he said.
“No company or expatriate will come and establish modern day plantations in Guyana. We have passed there a hundred and something years ago, and we will not return the children of indentured people, children or indigenous people and the slaves that come to Guyana,” he said, while pledging his commitment to the people of Guyana.
‘Much mending
Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat last night told Stabroek News that a meeting was summoned by President Irfaan Ali to discuss the future of the company’s operations here. He noted that the Russian Ambassador Alexander Kurmaz, during a courtesy call to President Ali, had also expressed concerns over the company’s operations here.
Bharrat told Stabroek News that the company has committed to resuming its operations here but on a smaller scale.
During the meeting with the ministries and the GGMC, the company’s Country Representative, Vladimir Permakov, related that the protest action of blocking the Berbice River to prevent barges for passing by sacked workers hindered critical work in the mines.
The company also related their view that there are presently several technical matters which have to be addressed in the first instance, such as the restoration of the mine for safe mining after it became flooded, a statement from Bharrat after the meeting explained.
The company’s representative further disclosed that the operating cost for extracting Guyana’s bauxite was not as competitive on the world market as from other sources and there was now the potential added costs of remedial work in the mine.
It was noted, too, that “the industrial relations environment needed much mending to restore the confidence for significant further investment in the operations by RUSAL,” the statement added.
Moving forward, Minister Benn recommended that BCGI present a report which would set out “how the company could return to viability.” The report will also serve as the basis of a Joint Technical Committee meeting in about three weeks to examine further how there could be progress and if that was possible in respect of the future of the bauxite operations by BCGI.
Just about two weeks ago, former workers who had maintained a blockade across the Berbice River following the termination of their services by the company in January, removed the barrier.
General Secretary of the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) Lincoln Lewis told this newspaper that workers believed the new PPP/C-led government would not fully represent their interests over wages and salaries and working conditions.
Given the experience with past PPP/C-led administrations, the sacked workers felt they should bring their industrial action to an end, he said.
The blockading of the river prevented BCGI from transporting bauxite to its shipping dock in New Amsterdam.
Lewis explained that despite the position former workers have taken, the union is prepared to press for workers’ rights to be respected.
“We are going to be pursuing this issue on principle. Since 2009 to date we have been in this situation, where the company decided to not respect Article 23 (1) of the Trade Union Recognition Act in any good faith,” Lewis said.
Carefree
He lamented that as a result of the company’s carefree approach, there could not have been any decent negotiations or talks to better working conditions or to increase wages and salaries.
The former workers have said that are standing by their call for RUSAL to leave Guyana. “They want to pay us next to nothing and expect us to accept this and when we reject it they want to pack up and go away. We cannot accept this and we will not accept this,” a worker declared.
In January RUSAL’s management fired a total of 326 workers and announced the suspension of its operations. This announcement came as a surprise to government officials as they were only made aware of the company’s decision during a meeting.
The union and BCGI have been in a decade-long labour dispute over a number of issues, including wages. Following strikes last year, the company signed an agreement to engage the union to find a solution but this did not materialise.
Around three months after RUSAL announced that they were suspending their operations, contracted shipping company, Oldendorff Carriers Guyana Inc (OCGI), announced that it was forced to shutter operations here. As a result of the closure, 132 employees were laid off.
OCGI is the company contracted to ship and transport bauxite from BCGI’s mines at Kurubuka in Region 10.
