SCORES of workers who braved the rainy weather to attend the Region 2 May Day rally at Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast, were challenged by Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) General Secretary, Ms. Coretta Mc Donald, to make the diverse trade union forces one united force.

Her feature address to the workers, made in the main pavilion of the Anna Regina Community Centre ground, saw Ms. Mc Donald describing the trade union movement in Guyana as being at the crossroads, causing some workers not to know where they are going. She blasted trade union leaders for dividing the workers, and lamented that two separate trade union rallies were being held in Georgetown.

Rejuvenation
Declaring that the trade union movement must be rejuvenated, she called on trade union leaders to be always ready to respond to the needs of workers, because they are elected to represent workers’ rights, and so must be responsive in that regard. She also said trade union leaders must seek to build genuine leadership to represent workers’ interests; must be responsible and accountable to the workers, and must conduct their affairs with integrity.
Moreover, she called on union leaders to put succession plans in place to identify new, young and energetic leaders to assume leadership roles eventually.
And she urged workers not to be weak, but to take a stand and hold union leaders and politicians accountable for fulfilling their promises, and to demonstrate respect for themselves.
She called for an end to police brutality, violence against teachers, insanitary conditions at work places, and elimination of sexual harassment of workers, even as she admonished her audience not to let considerations of race divide them, but to see all workers as being of one blood and of one race.
Region 2 Vice Chairman, Mr. Vishnu Samaroo, brought greetings on behalf of the Regional Administration. He said that May Day is very important, and is celebrated all across the world. Mr. Samaroo said it is not good that the trade union movement is divided, and he called on workers to unite the movement.
Former MP and stalwart of the PPP, Mr. Isahack Basir, appealed for unity in Guyana. He pointed out that without workers the wheels of industry cannot turn, and he called on workers across the region to attend May Day rallies and show solidarity with other workers.
Unions represented at the rally included the GPSU, GTU and GAWU. The march from La Belle Alliance to Anna Regina was called off because of heavy rainfall. Former Region 2 Vice Chairman, Mr. Heeralall Mohan, and councillors of the RDC, Bryan and Pooran Persaud, also attended the rally.