The RUSAL-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) Inc. today failed to show up at a scheduled meeting between the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU) and the Assistant Chief Labour Officer.
According to a release from the GB&GWU, the ministry had initiated this meeting for the union and the BCGI to address several issues including the dismissal of 57 workers in 2009 and the 5 who were dismissed recently. The meeting, the release said, was to be chaired by the Assistant Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle. While Ogle was present, the union said, company representatives were absent. BCGI does not normally speak to the media and could not be contacted today for comment on this matter.
The union said it saw a letter, where the company stated that the Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) between itself and the union had come to an end and consequently, it did not consider the ministry’s invitation to attend the meeting as valid.
Meanwhile, the GB&GWU in the release said that it “notes the public affirmation of President (Bharrat) Jagdeo of a union that will not be de-recognised under his watch when he learnt that the Guyana Sugar Corporation threatened de-recognition of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), yet he remains silent and in fact gives tacit support to BCGI’s one-year illegal action.” According to the union, “the disparity in treatment by this government of bauxite workers vis a vis sugar, who over the years are part of productive section, is glaring.” The union said that it “refuses to believe that BCGI, a company that is owned by Russian Alumina and the Government of Guyana, can abuse bauxite workers in this manner without the support of the government.” It said too that “there is no law in our country that allows a company to de-recognise a union.” “Though the government has knowledge of this it has done nothing to ensure the laws are respected for bauxite workers,” the union added.