Veteran Guyanese trade unionist and former President of the Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union(PTWU), Selwyn Felix has died.
He was in his early 80s. Felix passed away earlier this week in a New York hospital where he had been an in-patient since last week.
He served as union president from 1968 to 1993.
PTWU General Secretary, Eslyn Harris, recalled meeting Felix earlier this year when he visited Guyana.
“He taught me some little things in negotiations. I am so saddened because he visited with us earlier this year and I was so moved to see him… He was very alert,” she told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com).
Despite his advanced age, she said he was “in sync” with what was going on in the labour sector and generally in the country.
The PTWU plans to hold talks with the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) to explore the possibility of holding a night of reflection.
Paying tribute to the former GTUC Treasurer and Vice President, GTUC  General Secretary Lincoln Lewis hailed Felix as a “strong man who gave the cream of his life” to the trade union movement.
He noted that Felix possessed a wealth of pre-independence history and political understanding of the country. Lewis credited him with being a meticulous negotiator who could have easily tapped into information that would not normally be available.
“Selwyn was a very meticulous person who was a type of man who went after information. Selwyn, as a unionist, you could have relied on him to provide you with information that you would not have normally received through the official channel. He was able to establish the type of relationship that information coming from all quarters could have reached him,” said Lewis.
Lewis regarded Felix as someone who never harboured hatred or malice and was always willing to re-engage even his harshest critics, several of whom might have called him unflattering names.
The GTUC General Secretary said the former PTWU President’s passing has raised a “red flag” about the inadequate or lack of a welfare system for trade unionists who often have to migrate to secure a pension for their twilight years.