Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter written by Minister Manzoor Nadir and published in your daily on June 09, 2010 captioned, ‘The government has no axe to grind with the trade union movement’.

Had it not been for the gross level of chicanery and hypocrisy in this statement I would have let Nadir wallow in his nadir. The reality, which Nadir knows, is that the PPP since the events of 1963 has developed an abject fear for an independent and united trade union movement.  It is apposite to note, editor, that the current leaders in the movement were not associated with the events of 1963.Nadir’s table in defence of his contention I suggest is misleading and intellectually dishonest to put it mildly.

Let Nadir explain to the very readership he pleads innocence, the delay in processing the General Workers’ Union (GWU) application for sole bargaining rights for approximately seven hundred and thirty (730) non-management employees of the Federal Management Systems Incorporated (Guyana) FMS.

The union’s application was submitted to the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board on the 11th February 2010 and to date there is no resolution.

Our record suggests that the General Workers’ Union recruited approximately forty-eight percent (48%) of the workers in the bargaining unit applied for.

There is sufficient information at the disposal of the General Workers’ Union that suggests that there is fiddling with the union’s application.

I will reserve further comment until Nadir replies.

Yours faithfully,
Norris Witter General President,
General Workers’ Union