In its New Year’s Message, the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) appealed for 2014 to be a year when “our trade unions must become trade unions again.”
NAACIE urged FITUG and the TUC to hammer out areas of common concerns, objectives and approaches. It said that if there cannot be full unity between the two organizations, surely there can be consensus on common solutions necessary for improved conditions for the nation’s workers.
It reminded that several years ago in its New Year’s message, NAACIE had alerted the labour movement that certain employers seem bent on destroying the right to trade union representation. It said that in 2013 this threat persisted from “well-known quarters” since contract workers were left without representation provided for in Articles 147 and 149 of the Constitution.
The union resolved in 2014 to encourage their FITUG grouping and the TUC to find out who had given employers the permission or loophole to openly flout these fundamental workers’ rights enshrined within our Constitution. NAACIE did not point fingers over contract workers but one of the prime exponents of this practice is central government.
The union exhorted that Collective Bargaining Agreements must also be honoured by all employers, whether they be the government, a state corporation or private sector store or company. NAACIE called upon all trade unions to formulate strategies for the benefit of their members and the nation as a whole.
NAACIE also called on the government to find ways to work with the Parliamentary Opposition and Civil Society in the interest of national development. It also called on the Opposition “to put the Guyanese nation first instead of a programme of scoring more political points.”
It expressed the hope that 2014 would be the long overdue year for practical co-operation by all representatives, elected or not. It said that NAACIE also looked forward to local community elections to make developmental democracy real at the grass roots level.
It said as a trade union and bargaining agent for workers in such sectors as agriculture (sugar), industry (bauxite), utilities services (GPL and NFMU), and manufacturing (CCI), NAACIE has assessed the past and will prepare for the future from a working class perspective. It used the lens of workers’ representative to search for principles and practices provided in law, customs and practice to ensure that their members/workers receive fair conditions and pay for the fair labour they provide for their employers and the Guyanese people.
