The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) is calling on the Government to ensure that the country’s workers are not shut out from jobs and registered its displeasure at reports that Guyanese workers are not part of the labour force on the site of the Marriott Hotel now under construction in Kingston.
In a press release yesterday, the GTUC in a statement called on the President of Guyana to ensure that Guyana’s sovereignty is protected and that the rights of Guyanese workers are respected. Some 140 Chinese workers are working on the construction site.
“The [GTUC] is deeply disturbed by the report that the Marriott Hotel is being constructed with the employment of (a) Chinese labour force and absent the input of Guyanese labour,” said the release.
“Guyana is a sovereign nation and governed by its own laws, among which include the citizens’ right to work and the protection of the people by the government. With government charged foremost with responsibility for ensuring the security of its people, which does not only attend to crime, but every aspect of the people’s lives as outlined in the Guyana Constitution and its attendant laws”, action is needed to ensure the nation’s laws are upheld and its people’s wellbeing protected, it said.
“The Donald Ramotar administration is called on to immediately address this issue and if the Executive fails to act then the Legislature must act to ensure the sovereignty of this country is maintained and the security of its people guaranteed,” it said. It charged that the absence of Guyanese labour when Guyanese are paying the bill constitutes an attack on state-hood and is a form of re-colonisation, “which must be rejected.”
The umbrella body said that the reported promise of former President Bharrat Jagdeo to hire Guyanese labour “ought not to be a promise but a commitment to the people since consistent with Article 22 of the Guyana Constitution, the right and the duty to work is guaranteed.”
The GTUC said that the involvement of NICIL Head Winston Brassington and the creation of Atlantic Hotels Incorporated (AHI) “to front this project raise searching questions which deserve answers.”
The release said that the project will add more burden to the taxpayers “and the spending of tens of millions of U.S dollars cannot, and must not be to the benefit of the well-off beneficiaries of the hotel’s hospitality and China’s economy.” It said that Guyanese must be given first preference to any job that entails them having to foot the bill.
“While the contractor Shanghai Construction Group (SCG) in a global economy is welcomed to engage in global business, SCG must be equally mindful that ours is a sovereign nation, and our laws must be honoured and res-pected, including the right and duty of Guyanese to work, even more so that Guyanese taxpayers (workers) are funding this project,” it said.
It noted that the Chinese government would not have allowed any foreign company to engage in business in China, on the back of Chinese’s taxpayers without their workforce being given preferential treatment and their laws, customs and practices respected, and this would be the right thing to do.”
“As such the Chinese Embassy in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, Chinese Associations in both countries and SCG are called upon to let good corporate and ethical sense prevail and act in a manner that would communicate to this nation and CARICOM that they respect the citizens and are prepared in their business practices to honour our laws, customs and practices. GTUC also calls on CARICOM and Guyanese to raise their voices to stop the violations of our principles, sovereignty and rights,” the GTUC said.
