The AFC says it is outraged at what it said is the continued arrogance and disregard being exhibited by RUSAL’s subsidiary, the Bauxite Company of Guyana Limited which didn’t attend yesterday’s arbitration meeting ordered by the Minister of Labour into a longstanding dispute with the union GB&GWU.
In a statement yesterday, the AFC said the RUSAL subsidiary “continues to disrespect the workers, their families, the laws, and indeed all Guyanese by their continued refusal to engage the workers who were dismissed three years ago. This is an outrage and a national ‘eye-pass’ that all right-minded Guyanese must stand up against.”
The party said that the latest refusal to submit to the lawful process of arbitration is an affront to the labour laws and processes for settling labour disputes. It argued that foreign companies must be made aware of the laws, customs and practices of the nation, and made to respect and abide by them when here.
“The government has allowed, because of its nefarious deal-making, to allow RUSAL to continue to treat our workers and their families as sub-human, and by extension, is allowing this disrespect to be blatantly flaunted on all of our systems and institutions.
“The AFC believes that the time has come for RUSAL to be brought to book and for the contract to be reviewed and terminated if the behaviour continues. We may lose much needed financing, but regain our pride and dignity”, the AFC argued.
A letter, from the company’s attorney, Andrew Pollard, in which he indicated he would not be able to attend any meetings before April 1st since he was out of the country, was delivered some ten minutes before the start of the meeting yesterday.
RUSAL’s (Guyana) Personnel Manager Elena Gorshkova had on March 8th told the Secretary to the Arbitrator that both she and the General Manager would be overseas and as a result would not be attending the meeting scheduled yesterday.
However, Arbitrator Francis Carryl went ahead with the proceedings, which were held briefly at the Ministry of Labour’s Boardroom.
The dispute between GB&GWU and the RUSAL subsidiary goes all the way back to 2009. The union had charged that the previous Jagdeo administration and the Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir had not held the bauxite company accountable for the grievances that workers had.
