Dhanash Ramroop

After 26 days of industrial action by workers, the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc.

The Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) yesterday maintained its call for compulsory arbitration to resolve its ongoing dispute with the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc.

Two vendors who ply their trade at the Bourda Market died  and five persons were  injured after the bus they were heading to the city in, crashed and toppled several times before coming to a halt on the other side of the Success, East Coast Demerara (ECD) public road yesterday morning.

Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle yesterday said the Department of Labour of the Ministry of Social Protection is awaiting the response of the management of RUSAL’s Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI) on two proposals that were presented at a meeting yesterday on the current industrial action at the company’s Kwakwani mining operation.

The Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI), which is controlled by Russian Aluminium (RUSAL), yesterday fired 61 striking workers and its management refused to attend a scheduled conciliation meeting at the Department of Labour.

Over its four decades-long presence in Guyana, the European Union (EU) has provided over $20.1 billion (€85 million) in grant funding for the construction and rehabilitation of the country’s sea defence structures.

Over the 15 years that the First Bauxite Corporation’s mine in Sand Hills, Region Three, is expected to be in operation, over US$387 million will be injected in the local economy,  Company official Ian Christie said yesterday.

Fed up with late payments for their paddy and mounting production costs, many of Wakenaam’s rice farmers have shifted to cultivating plantain and coconut. 

While the draft Code of Conduct for minibus operators is still being finalised, some Route 42 drivers have already started wearing uniforms and adhering to other provisions as they are aiming to be the pioneers of a new culture for public transportation.

Residents of Wakenaam are unhappy about the state of their main access road and say they feel abandoned as its longstanding deplorable condition is hampering their daily lives and the island’s economic growth.

APNU+AFC supporters say they are confident that the coalition will once again be re-elected to office next year after the no-confidence motion that was tabled by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo was passed leaving dozens of their supporters in tears last night.

With its news radio programme, the Society Against Sexual Orienta-tion Discrimination (SASOD) has been seeking to widen its reach for advocacy and to create a space for voices that do not yet have a place within Guyana’s mainstream media, according to its Managing Director and Founder Joel Simpson, who says it has yielded some success.

The payment of the remaining 50% of severance to ex-sugar workers, which commenced around the country on Thursday, will help to ensure a “merry Christmas,” some proclaimed yesterday after receiving their cheques.

El Dorado Offshore Inc. (EDO) says it will be investigating allegations of discrimination made by Guyanese seafarers it has recruited to work on offshore oil sector support vessels, including that they are being paid less than expatriates for the same jobs.

—says staff performance also has to be factored in   Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana (UG), Professor Ivelaw Griffith, has denied the claims by two unions that UG is on the brink of a crisis, countering that the institution is currently financially solvent and willing to begin wage increase negotiations.

“Everyone was screaming, cursing, you name it. They were calling God and I don’t know who else they were calling on, it was just crazy,” passenger Invor Bedessee, who was set to return home to Canada, recalled yesterday after the crash landing of his Fly Jamaica flight at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Timehri hours earlier.

EITI, which has set a global standard for accountable management of natural resources, is expected to receive Guyana’s inaugural report after the first quarter next year.

A Diamond, East Bank Demerara, home owner who lives abroad, says she has had to stay in the country longer than planned as a result of the creeping deterioration of her house due to the nearby natural gas well that was recently capped.

A long serving accountant and the acting Treasurer yesterday both voiced their dissatisfaction with some processes at the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) and one of them said there is some of amount of mismanagement.

Waste Solutions Landfill Inc. has made significant progress in its upgrading the Haags Bosch dumpsite into a landfill, according to Ministry of Communities Site Supervisor Lloyd Stanton, who says that a new space-saving method of storing the waste has been adopted.