The Personnel Manager of RUSAL and former chief labour officer Mr. Mohammed Akeel had meetings with us workers of the bauxite company at Aroaima. During the meetings we asked questions such as why was Mr.
Akeel allowing the company to break the laws of Guyana. In his reply he said that a lot of persons wrote letters in the newspapers including Lincoln Lewis and Leslie Gonsalves and said the same thing.
However, Mr. Akeel told us that in a letter to the news media, he had challenged those persons to say which law the company had broken but nobody replied. After reading news bulletins of the company and also reading the various comments made by concerned citizens of Guyana, many workers who are members of the union have been convinced that it was the Union which was breaking the laws of Guyana. It is ridiculous also to learn that the union (G.B. &.G.W U) did not audit its accounts and that the law requires the union to submit an annual return to the Registrar of Trade Unions, but they have not been doing so for ten years.
It is time Mr. Gonsalves informs the members of the Union when last the accounts were audited:
1. When last was the annual returns submitted to the registrar.
2. How often is the union required to hold a delegates’ conference to elect union leaders and when the last conference was held? This question is not about branch meetings which are only being held for sanctioning strikes.
3. How the union dues are being spent. The members would like these questions to be answered.
Yours faithfully,
Orin Ford
Reford Byass
Elymuwell Barkoye
