Employees of the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) say they are being coerced to join a new union, which intends to challenge the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) to be the recognized bargaining unit at the company.
BCGI, a subsidiary of Rusal, and the GB&GWU have been at loggerheads since May 2009. The dispute intensified in November 2009, when over 300 workers came together and staged strikes at the Kwakwani and Aroaima sites after the GB&GWU and the BCGI failed to reach a satisfactory agreement on wages. Later, the BCGI began distributing suspension letters to some of the employees, saying they had abandoned their workplace without reason. A few days later, the majority of the workers returned to work while 57 were dismissed. The company then said it no longer considered that there was a Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) with the union in place, and it would move to have the GB&GWU derecognised.
Just last month, the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board (TUR&CB) rejected an application by some employees of the BCGI to have the GB&GWU derecognised. The ruling was made more than a year after a group of employees approached the board on the matter. It was determined, however, that the number of workers who made the request did not represent 40% of the bargaining unit as is legally required. Union representatives have accused BCGI of coercing workers into applying for derecognition.
Recently some employees of the company told this newspaper that since Monday two members of the workers’ committee that had applied for the derecognition of the GB&GWU have been visiting both the Aroaima and Kwakwani worksites urging workers to join the Metal Workers Union, which will challenge the GB&GWU. According to one employee, who requested anonymity, the two workers claimed that this union has been registered and has the support of those in authority.
The employee alleged that the two workers have been targeting new employees in particular, telling them that if they do not join the new union, they will get into trouble with the company’s management. The Metal Workers Union is looking to attract the support of at least 140 employees, this newspaper was told.
According to the employee, the two workers who have been seeking support for the new union, have been granted time off by management and provided with transportation to do their soliciting. “Yesterday [Wednesday] they went to Kwakwani and day before yesterday they went to Aroaima,” the worker said.
Several efforts to contact representatives of the company for comment were unsuccessful.
Contacted on Thursday, Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir said he did not know about any other union intending to challenge the GB&GWU to be the bargaining unit for the workers.
Nadir said the only way a new union can challenge the GB&GWU for recognition is for existing members to make an application to the TUR&CB, which will then have to conduct a poll.
According to Sec (21) (3) of the Trade Unions Recognition Act 1997: “Where the results of the poll show a tie or are inconclusive, a second poll shall be carried out within seven days, and in the event of a second tie or the results being inconclusive, a further poll shall be conducted within fourteen days: Provided that where a certified union is being challenged and the challenging union satisfies the Board, by means of a survey, that the support of the challenging union among the workers in the unit is not less than forty per cent, the Board shall cause a poll to be taken, but the certificate of recognition of the challenged union shall not be cancelled where the challenging union fails to obtain a majority of not less than forty per cent amongst the workers in the unit.”
Meanwhile, Nadir said the leaders of the GB&GWU and the management of the BCGI have not met since the recent ruling by the (TUR&CB). The minister had told this newspaper following the ruling that he was hoping the two parties would meet and iron out their differences. According to Nadir, the talks between the union and the company parties had been put on hold since he had been informed that the general manager of the company was out of the country. He said the talks would resume once the general manager of the company, returned to the country.
“I have asked my office to write [to] the company again because the union is ready,” Nadir said, adding that he has not heard from the company since the end of January.
Meanwhile, one employee told this newspaper that following the recent ruling of the GB&GWU the general manager and the human resource manager of the company told workers that they will not be acceding to the requests being made.
President of the GB&GWU, Leslie Gonsalves told Stabroek News that the union’s management was concerned about the lack of principle displayed by the company. “We’re not afraid…what we are concerned about is how they are coercing workers. It’s the lack of principle, we are talking about.” Gonsalves said it was also a contravention of the Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) which states that nobody on the job should solicit workers to join a union during working hours.
Gonsalves said too that were there to be a new bargaining unit installed, the outstanding issues that the GB&GWU has been fighting hard to address will not be followed through. He said it was clear that this new union was coming from “inside” the company and not an external union that wanted to come in.
