THE Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) on Wednesday joined affiliates of the World Federation of Trade Unions in observing World Federation of Trade Union (WFTU) International Action Day.

The WFTU has affiliates in some 20 countries with an aggregate membership of around 90 million.
The local observance, which brought together sister trade unions of Guyana, began with a march from the Bank of Guyana through the streets of Georgetown, culminating in a rally in the compound of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), High Street, Kingston.
The theme of the observance was: “Unemployment: End Unemployment! Organise and fight for Dignified Work and life.”
Speakers included: Minister of Labour, Dr. Nanda Gopaul; President of FITUG and General Secretary of the Guyana Labour Union, Carvil Duncan; Second Vice President of the Federation and President of the Clerical and Commercial

Workers Union, Sherwood Clarke; Representative of GAWU, Mr. Seepaul Narine and General Secretary of NAACIE, Kenneth Joseph. Chairing the rally was GAWU’s Mr. Aslim Ali. A message was also read from the General Secretary of the Caribbean Conference of Labour (CCL), Mr. Chester Humphrey.
GAWU representative, Seepaul Narine, pointed to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) report which revealed that more than 16 million persons have been out of work for at least a year in the first quarter of 2014. He also cited the International Labour Organization (ILO) Global Employment Trends Report which states:
* In 2013, the number of unemployed worldwide rose by five million, to almost 202 million, a 6% unemployment rate.
* Some 23 million workers have dropped out of the labour market
* The number of job seekers is expected to rise by more that 13 million by 2018
* Around 839 million workers lived with their families on less than US$2 in 2013.
“Based on current trends, global unemployment would rise by another 13 million people by 2018, thereby having more than 215 million job seekers,” Narine projected.
According to the GAWU representative, not having a job in today’s world is indeed a horrifying ordeal. “It is a situation which undoubtedly lends to greater poverty which has been stalking our world, especially since the crisis of capitalism erupted in 2008,” he declared.
Against this backdrop, Narine called on working people to take care of their jobs, while calling on union members to focus on the protection and creation of jobs. However, he noted that according to the Millennium Development Goal Report, poverty in Guyana has declined from 43.2 per cent in 1993 to 36.1 percent in 2006.
He added that GAWU upholds the principle of stable and steady work and decent wages for all, since a just and peaceful future cannot be based on exploitation and growing unemployment.
Meanwhile, FITUG President Carvil Duncan, whilst acknowledging that unemployment is haunting almost every country in the world, said that, the question to be asked in our local context is: “Do we have unemployment or under-employment in Guyana?”
He noted the thousands of persons graduating from university with degrees, but cannot get jobs. The trend, Duncan said, is that they are all going in to seek academic qualifications such as doctors, lawyers, public servants or managers and are not going after training that qualifies them for technical jobs, which indeed are the jobs available. He said that the Ministry of Labour can attest to the fact that there are lots of jobs available, but that we have been concentrating on training in the wrong direction. “We must now concentrate on training for jobs that are available, or be faced with a serious dilemma,” Duncan said.

NAACIE General Secretary Kenneth Joseph contended that too many of our youths, 18 and over are still unemployed.
He noted that even though the newspapers advertise a lot of vacancies, the problem is that the job seekers are either over-qualified or under qualified; in the latter case, they lack the qualification requirements or suitability for the jobs being advertised. This has resulted in many youths being self-employed; driving taxis; engaging in gold and diamond mining or in the forestry sector. Alternatively, they are forced to opt for low- paying jobs. Noting that there is dignity in labour, Joseph condemned the practice of employers employing cheap labour, and called on government to initiate moves to robustly and relentlessly stamp out cheap labour, by both local and foreign employers. Only then can we truly lay claim to embracing the paradigm of twinning employment with dignity, he said.
CCWU President, Sherwood Clarke, addressing the harsh realities of unemployment and how it negatively impacts the ability to live in dignity, also alluded to the pathetic global scenario where around 839 million workers lived with their families on less than US$2 per day. He quoted the World Bank’s findings of a 22% unemployment rate in Guyana, Clarke contended that one reason for the unemployment situation in Guyana being what it is, is that too many job-creating projects have been placed on hold because of political bickering. “Our situation can be resolved with increased dialogue in an environment in which “trust” is observed by all the players,” he concluded.