General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis has told the Stabroek Business that while labour is buoyed by the confirmation announced in Monday’s budget presentation that the Critchlow Labour College (CLC) will have its annual subvention which was removed under the previous political administration restored, it provides the College with a challenge to ensure that the subvention “converts into various forms of training for young people that can strengthen the pool of resources available to take the economy and the country forward. “It is an accomplishment as much for the young people of this country as it is for labour,” Lewis quipped.
In his budget presentation on Monday Finance Minister Winston Jordan announced “the return of subventions to the Critchlow Labour College and the Trades Union Congress” as well as to the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITUG) a breakaway faction from the GTUC and all registered trade unions.
Asked whether the announcement that FITUG would receive a state subvention did not amount to government turning a blind eye to the ongoing division in the trade union movement, Lewis said that he would make no comment on that matter at this time.
Meanwhile, Lewis told Stabroek Business that he was “somewhat surprised” over the fact that the 2015 budget did not include “a single reference” to the role that the cooperative movement played in the forward movement of the country’s economy. “The cooperative sector has been alienated for a sufficiently lengthy period and the budget would have been an opportune moment to send a signal to the nation that the cooperative movement remains relevant”, he said. Stabroek Business has been reliably informed that the local cooperative movement has mobilized around $3.5 billion in finances and assets and Lewis said that it would have been good “for government to work with the cooperative movement and its assets in the economic interest of the nation.” There are those who might even argue that there is now room for the reintroduction of Ministry of Cooperatives.
Lewis told Stabroek Business, meanwhile, that he was “not comfortable” with the fact that the Ministry of Labour had now been renamed the Ministry of Social Protection. He said that he did not believe that it was “at all necessary” to remove the title “labour” from the Ministry. “Setting aside the importance of the tradition of having a labour ministry it occurs to me that social protection is only one facet of labour’s concerns.” According to Lewis “there is always the danger that one or another function of the traditional Labour Ministry may become marginalized in the process of a name change though he added that he was impressed with the “vigour and energy” that appeared to be evident in the approach being taken by Minister in the Ministry of Social Protection Simona Broomes in her approach to tackling labour-related issues that fall within her portfolio. “The impression you get is that her heart is in the right place,” Lewis told Stabroek Business.
In his budget presentation Jordan said that the APNU-AFC coalition government “will foster a conducive climate for improved employer/employee relations in order to maintain a stable industrial relations climate,” an ambition which Lewis told Stabroek Business “makes sense if we are going to be dealing with a labour force with which we hope to take the country’s economy forward.
