In commemoration of this year’s May Day tomorrow, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) will be hosting a parade in Georgetown.
A GTUC release yesterday informed that the march will begin at the Independence Park (the location of the basketball facility – Burnham Court) at 7:30 am and end at the Critchlow Labour College on Woolford Ave. After the march, a rally will follow at 10:30 am. The GTUC is inviting all unions, workers and the public to participate.
The rally’s main speakers are: GTUC President, Coretta McDonald, Vice President Norris Witter, and General Secretary, Lincoln Lewis.
This year’s theme is “Building a strong progressive union to deal with the challenges,” and according to the union, “comes against the backdrop of the perilous times workers are experiencing and the need to refocus the trade union as the bulwark in the struggle for improved working conditions and better standard of living.”
The release observed that Labour Day comes at a time when workers in Guyana, which has been described as the world’s fastest growing economy, are “deprived” of a liveable wage and standard of living commensurate with the nation’s gross domestic product. Further, it posited that pensioners are losing hope that their circumstances in their golden years could improve. Reference was also made to a World Bank Report which stated that almost half of the nation’s population is surviving on less than $1,200 per day and many of the nation’s children are going to bed and school hungry.
The GTUC also sounded the alarm that the constitutional right to join a trade union of choice and engage in collective bargaining is being violated “with impunity.” It named the biggest “recalcitrant” as the government, the nation’s largest employer and custodian of the Constitution and Laws of Guyana. And as if to rub salt in this wound, workers are made to bear witness to the widening gap between the haves and have-nots.
The release touched on the right to vote and reminded that it was the trade union which initiated the struggle for it in 1926 and that this right is being tested as never before. It was pointed out that even before the first ballot is cast for the upcoming Local Government Election, there are fears, “not unjustified,” that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will abrogate its constitutional duty to ensure a free, fair and credible election as well as an election free from fear and being compromised.
“In a land of plenty there is rising despair and hopelessness. Workers’ only hope, apart from emigrating, is to unite in the face of the adversities and fight back,” the release added.
