The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) has urged workers to take “every bit of caution” with their salaries and wages to cushion the impact of the global economic crisis and to support their unions.

In a New Year’s message GTUC President Gillian Burton said the crisis will have serious implications for developing countries which has been evidenced locally by the reduction of remittances to Guyana. As such, she urged workers to “stand resolute behind their unions to police its business and operations and hold executives responsible and accountable for its maintenance.”

Burton said too the calls for the repeal of the Value-Added Tax have gone unheeded and public servants continue to remain “victims of depression and marginalization.” Therefore, workers must cease to squander their meagre wages and salaries on “frivolous social activities that come disguised as methods of relaxation but which are really weapons of distraction that divert our attention from the real picture.”

Meanwhile, the GTUC said 2008 was another year where the labour movement ceased to progress. “What should have been the year that heralded the success of the much talked about reunification… remained one of disillusion and bitter enmity, especially for those who dared to envision a militant and innovative labour movement,” Burton said. Trade union leaders have fallen short of the mandate entrusted to them by workers which has jeopardised their livelihoods. The GTUC said the inability to repair this divide has placed the movement in a further dilemma with the clandestine and hurried tabling of the Trade Union Recognition (Amendment) Bill 2008. However, due to the militancy and determination of the TUC and with the support of the Parliamentary opposition groups and other labour-friendly organisations a second reading of the Bill was deferred, it said. The bill was eventually passed on Friday despite further attempts to have it deferred.

The GTUC said unions must safeguard the legacy of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, the architect of the trade union movement in Guyana and unite to protect workers.

Additionally, the GTUC called for national support of government initiatives such as the National Competitiveness Strategy, the TACKLE project which seeks to eradicate child labour, the HIV/AIDS National Workplace Policy and the technical paper on Avoiding Deforestation.