Traditionally, May Day or Labour Day is  an  occasion when  workers from  around the world hold rallies at which they reiterate their demands for better wages and  working conditions. Usually, these gatherings are addressed by union leaders, who articulate the calls made by their particular membership.  
The Guyanese experience of labour and its many  struggles is one that has originated from the epic battles  of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow. This quiet and unassuming man, the father of the Guyana Trade Union Movement, fought against the big city businesses and entrenched class interests. It was this same  battle that was to be taken up, beginning properly in the 1940s,  when  the late Father of the Nation and former President Dr. Cheddi Jagan began his renowned  struggle against the sugar barons, on behalf of  the thousands of sugar workers who toiled under deplorable conditions. From both these struggles there were hard-fought-for   gains but not without the supreme sacrifice, such as the five sugar workers who were shot dead at Enmore on June 16, 1948. This  heroic stand epitomised the dire struggle of the early Guyanese worker.   
But it was the gains, valiantly fought for by  Chritchlow, Jagan, and the indomitable Joseph Pollydore, among others, that became threatened during the dictatorial rule of the Burnhamite  PNC government.
Let the current generation of Guyanese workers  understand, that the freedoms that they now  enjoy are not to be taken for granted. In fact, the succeeding generation of union leaders bore the brunt of the vicious retaliation from a brutal regime that, through  what can be described as opportune circumstances, almost subjugated the local  trade union movement, even if it meant threatening the physical persons of those leaders who stood in defence of the Guyanese  workers at that time.  
Guyanese of  mature age will recall the  year  1974, when the international community became paralysed by the Energy Shocks, as a result of Arab petroleum nations’ retaliation against western nations, for not pressuring the state of Israel into withdrawing from Arab Territories, invaded during the Yom Kippur war in 1973.
With the foreboding  challenges with which  mainly non-producing petroleum economies, such as Guyana, would have to negotiate, the PNC administration, announced a series of measures, designed to cope with a situation that demanded prudent management of the economy.
Arising out of these measures was one, whereby Forbes Burnham sought the cooperation of the governing Trade Union Congress, to suppress industrial action, particularly within the Public Service. This request, assented to by the TUC, was to have resulted in  consequences for the local   trade union movement, and in the process, workers’ rights.
Not only were workers’ legitimate rights suppressed, but in many  required instances – they were afraid to strike. The clash between the striking Guyana Stores staff and the Young Socialist Movement scabs directed  by  a certain PNC strongman,  in 1978, was one of the highpoints of this struggle against a jackbooted regime, bent on destroying the  will of the Guyanese workers.
But we have to recognise and say thanks to heroic leaders such as George Daniels, who narrowly escaped from state security agents; and the late Gordon Todd, General Secretary of the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union. Although the latter was frighteningly silenced by security goons, he and other independent-minded union leaders, seceded with their respected unions, to form the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG).   
No longer are state  workers coerced into attending May Day rallies as  formerly.   

What remains worrying, however, is the fact that Guyana’s trade union movement remains increasingly divided with little sign of the two main factions, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana  (FITUG) reuniting.

“Let us try to work together in order to advance our country to make it a better place,” President Ramotar appealed during his address at the FITUG rally in the National Park yesterday.
The President said workers must band together to move the impediments and hurdles hindering progress, including pressing the GTUC to democratise its leadership.

All Guyanese, especially those stalwarts and up and rising leaders in the trade union movement, need to pay heed to the clarion call yesterday by the President to work in unity and in partnership in a committed effort to bridge the widening divide in the labour movement.
 So again yesterday, for yet another year, workers unfortunately had to march separate ways, which undermines true workers’ solidarity and unity.
The working class in Guyana is being affected by the lack of unity that exists in the movement as a whole. As long as this division exists, the movement is in danger of weakening. The strength of the workers always lay in their numbers and the unity of the working class.