The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) has exhorted its members to unite to hold every politician, in and out of Government, accountable for any action or inaction that denies social justice to the workers of this country and unify regardless of the political season “for our true interest never changes when political power changes.”
According to the GTUC statement to this week’s Guyana Public Service Conference, the current atmosphere where many are in pursuit of political power through general and regional elections will see eligible citizens casting a ballot through a process that was made possible by the strength and determination of the trade union and the working people of this country. It added, “Ours is a legacy of leadership and progressive change.”
The union body spoke of the genesis of the trade union in Guyana and reminded that the trade union was the first mass-based organisation that emerged post-slavery and over the years has “conceptualised and developed programmes that impacted change and realised benefits that many today enjoy but yet take for granted.” It went on to say that post-colonial rule saw “workers enjoying better conditions of work and an atmosphere of support for working class advancement in a democratic environment of one man one vote, a right whose struggle to secure was initiated by the trade union movement and supported by others.”