General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis has criticized the government for the “demonstrable lack of willingness on its part to bring the partially state-owned… Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) under control” in response to its “continued reign of terror” and its refusal to engage “the recognized union, the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU).”
Lewis said, “In my opinion BCGI is completely out of control. We are aware that there have been meetings between the BCGI’s top brass and Minister in the Ministry of Social Protection Keith Scott on at least two occasions this year. The minister is fully aware of our concerns regarding the state of industrial relations at the company but he has not seen it fit to engage the union in order to bring about a normalization of the situation.”
The veteran trade unionist who has repeatedly voiced his fierce objection to what he said is a flagrant disregard for workers’ rights on the part of the Russian managers accountable to the majority RUSAL-owned company, told Stabroek Business on Wednesday that a point had now between reached where “the government could no longer be excused [for its] culpability in this matter. The fact of the matter is that there has been no positive change in the industrial situation at BCGI since the present administration has been in office.”
Lewis said he was ”baffled” over the present posture of the APNU+AFC administration in relation to the situation at BCGI, since it was his recollection that officials of the present government had been critical of the treatment meted out to the workers there under the previous administration.
“It has been suggested to me that the reluctance of the political administration to engage the RUSAL managers on the company’s industrial relations track record might have to do with a fear that the Russians might leave. I don’t know if that is true. What I do know is that a weak official response to the situation at BCGI is certain to make things worse for the workers,” Lewis said.
And the GTUC General Secretary said he believed the trade union movement as a whole owed a debt of gratitude to those workers at BCGI, whom he said had, “for years, endured the full fury of the company’s expatriate managers with commendable courage and without wilting. I can think of workers, by name, of whom this country should be immensely proud.”
Over the years BCGI has been in the limelight for what its critics say is one of the worst industrial relations records in the country and Lewis told Stabroek Business he believed there was ample justification for that tag. “It is not just a question of openly refusing to engage the union. Beyond that it is a matter of the ill-treatment of workers, the flagrant disregard for safety and health and the general conditions under which the workers serve. In my opinion the manner in which this company behaves suggests that its majority owners have a low regard for Guyana as a whole,” Lewis declared.
