Dear Editor,
I say without fear of contradiction, the three-week-old strike at the Linden Utility Services Coop Society Limited (LUSCSL) is another effort of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government to cut off the economic source of African Guyanese labour.
Even after all this time the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) and management met only twice and both times at the Union’s instigation. The government, which has the primary responsibility for maintaining a stable and harmonious industrial environment, has opted not to act; a tactic it would never ever use for sugar workers.
Guyanese know too well sugar workers only have to come out with a placard or threaten strike action and the government is quick to act. The matter of LUSCSL is the highhanded behaviour by members of the imposed Interim Management Committee (IMC) in violating the workers’ rights and misusing the funds of the cooperative. Chief Labour Officer (CLO) Dhaneshwar Deonarine has a duty under the law to intervene in this industrial dispute and seek to restore normalcy.
The CLO has apparently not advised the new IMC chairwoman of what he brokered between the union and general manager. The new chairwoman met with workers on Thursday afternoon. During that engagement she spoke with a representative of the Union and advised she had not been briefed by the Labour Department. If the CLO has an interest in resolving the grievances, he would have briefed the new chairman immediately after she was appointed rather than operating as though normalcy exists.
The union and the company met under the chairmanship of the CLO when the union submitted its conditions for resumption. The general manager took the position that whatever has been hammered out he has to return to acting Chief Cooperatives Development Officer (CCDO) Debbie Persaud or the new IMC for a directive to act
Under long established principles, the Labour Department on hearing a strike existed or an ultimatum given by a union to a company setting a time for a strike, it would intervene. The role of the Labour Department is to avoid and settle disputes, not to sit down and wait to be invited to conciliate. The CLO was informed by way of letter of the strike on the first day it occurred. There is no excuse on his part, three weeks into the strike for the matter to remain unsettled, unless that is the intent.
There are also outstanding labour issues with the public service unions, the teachers union, and the Bauxite Company Guyana Incorporated (BCGI) and GB&GWU.
Letters are lying on both Hamilton’s and Deonarine’s desks outlining the outstanding grievances, including incorrect severance pay to BCGI workers. These letters were either tossed in the dustbin or catching dust on their desks.
Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
