…demands compulsory arbitration between itself, RUSAL/BCGI
In its quest to resolve an age-old dispute and safeguard the rights of bauxite workers at the Russian Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI)/RUSAL, the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) is demanding that compulsory arbitration be implemented in accordance with the country’s Labour Laws.
In the interim, the Union demands also that the GB&GWU workers be provided with a temporary financial package until the conclusion of arbitration.
GB&GWU General Secretary, Lincoln Lewis, in a Letter to the Editor, said it is unacceptable and that successive Governments have failed to conclude a right and a just struggle for bauxite workers. The bauxite company, for decades, has refused to recognize the union, placing workers at disadvantage.
“The struggle of the bauxite workers has come full circle back into the hands of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration where it all began. December will mark eleven years of bauxite workers and their Union representing their case to successive governments to ensure the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI), a company that is 90 percent owned by RUSAL and 10 percent by the Government of Guyana, that the RUSAL/BCGI management respects Guyana’s sovereignty and the Labour laws that protect the people of Guyana,” the veteran trade unionist pointed out.
Lewis questioned: “How much more must bauxite workers do to get the government to show care and consideration for these workers’ plight and ensure justice and respect for the Laws of Guyana? How much more must we do?”
With the change in Administration on August 2, the GB&GWU General Secretary said Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton, during a meeting at the Watooka Guest House on August 29, offered his commitment to resolve the bitter dispute.
Lewis said while the Minister’s commitment appeared to have been a step in the right direction, the Union has not heard from him since despite four telephone calls and issuance of three letters by the Union.
In wake of the Minister’s silence, the Union is demanding that compulsory arbitration be implemented as agreed to in March 2012 and February 2020. Further, it is calling on both RUSAL and the Government to recognise that bauxite, a major industry along with sugar, which built the nation, remains a viable productive entity adding to the country’s coffers.
“Workers should not be made to suffer as a result of vindictive, authoritarian actions of any foreign company seeking to violate our national sovereignty, regardless of the government in office. Entire communities rely on bauxite for sustenance and these communities, workers and their families have seen stagnation of development and reduction in their financial capacity (wages and salaries since 2009). Many workers remain unemployed,” Lewis stated.
Having shown scant regard for workers and the laws of Guyana, the Union said RUSAL is not a company that should be allowed to operate in Guyana, save and except under the strictest controls, monitoring and abidance with all our statutes, industrial and cultural norms.
A FAILURE BY SUCCESSIVE GOV’Ts
Lewis said it is first time in the industrial history of Guyana that successive Governments, as custodians of the laws and part owner of a business, have largely ignored the plight of the people and failed them.
“Under the Donald Ramotar administration the struggle was able to realise a letter, issued in March 2012 by Minister of Labour Dr. Nanda Gopaul, to the company for compulsory arbitration but that administration never finalised the dispute through the regulatory arbitration measure. Nonetheless, this was an improvement after the stagnation of resolution under Minister of Labour Manzoor Nadir during the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, under whose watch the concerns of bauxite workers were first raised,” he explained.
He said similarly the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Administration failed to activate compulsory arbitration. It was noted that while RUSAL/BGCI was forced to return to the negotiating table in March 2019, the company failed to negotiate in good faith seemingly with the support of the then Labour Minister, Keith Scott.
“Under pressure from the Union and with the intervention of Minister Ally the stage was set for arbitration. The response of the Russian management was that it preferred to shutter operations than submit to the Rule of Law and respect the rights of the workers to industrial dispute settlement. The Government, as a 10 percent part-owner of the company, following negotiations with the Union and in response to support from wider society, agreed to pay workers as part of a package until arbitration was instituted,” Lewis explained.
The Union is calling on Government to invest in the well-being of bauxite workers, through wages and salaries, and compulsory arbitration, as is being done in sugar industry.
