BOURDA Market vendors and stall owners yesterday mounted a protest at City Hall, following the strike action by staffers of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC). 

The strike action came about after the M&CC failed to approve the recommended 5% increase in mileage, salaries and allowances for categories of workers who are represented by the Guyana Local Government Officers Union (GLGOU) for the year 2013, according to Town Clerk Carol Sooba in an interview.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, Sooba noted that this disapproval has affected employees who are from the GLGOU and include clerical, professional and technical workers.

5% INCREASE
Sooba stated that the 5% increase has been retroactive to January 2013, where discussions and meetings among the committees which include members of the City Council were held to continuously keep up-to- date with the recommendations by the union.
“The councillors are also asking to have benefits which they are not entitled to because they are not salaried employees, they have thus far asked for an increase in travelling expenses and duty.”
She further stated that on December 8, 2014 all meetings to discuss the matter were suspended for some “frivolous” reason.
Additionally, she noted that the union sent out an ultimatum which ended last Friday, contributing to the protest which was mounted yesterday.
She noted that this strike has affected the abattoirs, markets and other council locations. Meanwhile, Sooba stated that the protestors threatened to continue protesting until the matter is resolved.

MAYOR’S VIEWS
Speaking at a press conference yesterday at City Hall following the protest, Mayor Hamilton Green stated that this is a situation which the Mayor and City Council has complained about a lot.
Mayor Green noted that he is in “sympathy with the stallholders for the inconvenience” caused because of the Town Clerk refusing to convene a meeting with the Mayor and City Council to discuss the issue.
He noted that there has been no assurance that the staffers would receive a 5% increase which was agreed to by the Finance Council of the M&CC.
The Mayor is blaming these occurrences on what is called a “Demonically Deranged Force”, which has contributed to the Administrative Department of the M&CC being completely disengaged.
Mayor Green noted that the Council is willing to convene a meeting to clear up the matter and end the matter whenever called upon. He noted that the funds are already in place to approve of the increase once the declarations are made.
He noted that all operations for the staffers and vendors are forced to remain on hold until the matter is resolved.
Meanwhile, the local vendors and staffers of the M&CC remain disturbed, because quite a few of the protestors noted that it’s the Christmas Season and this can immensely affect their progress throughout the remainder of the month.