The Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) has written to the Ethnic Relations Commission regarding its lax approach to initiating an investigation into alleged government discrimination against bauxite workers.
In a press release, GB&GWU President Carlton Sinclair said eight months on the union was still awaiting a public inquiry into discrimination against bauxite workers and their communities based on race and political geography. He said the letter was addressed to ERC CEO Yvonne Langevine and dispatched to the commission on Tuesday.
The union said it was concerned about the commission’s inaction and reminded the ERC that “the government discriminatory policy to bauxite workers and their communities are public knowledge which date back to 1992, with the November 2009 treatment of the impasse between the workers, represented by the GB&GWU and the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI), being the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
The GB&GWU said under Article 21D (a) of the constitution the ERC had a responsibility to “provide for equality of opportunity between persons of different ethnic groups and to promote harmony and good relations between such persons” and over the years bauxite workers and their communities had been denied “equality of opportunity” under this administration.
According to the release the union was also reminding the ERC that the impasse between it and the BCGI, which includes the government among its shareholders, was now 11 months old, “and not only are the rights of bauxite workers being trampled on but 57 families are being economically deprived” following the workers’ dismissal without due process. The GB&GWU also noted the disparity in treatment of four sugar workers who were dismissed from their jobs and subsequently reinstated within one month following union negotiations. It said its workers were not even being allowed to have their union negotiate for their reinstatement although they had been jobless now for 11 months.
“These are the discriminatory issues that the Government of Guyana is at the centre of and the disparity in treatment of these two entities is no coincidence, with the variance in the approach to dealing with disputes in the PPP centered/Indian dominated sugar industry as opposed to the African dominated, perceived PNC centered Bauxite industry,” the release said.
In the light of this, the union believed that the ERC’s failure to conduct an inquiry into an issue that was affecting a significant section of this society was an indication that it was failing in its constitutional mandate. It said the ERC had been established out of the recognition that there were ethnic conflicts in the society that needed addressing and its “continued failure to act” in this instance placed it in the precarious position of becoming party to the intensification of and perpetuation of insecurity among ethnic groups.