THE working class citizens are the builders of countries; but if agitated as a mass force by leaders with vested interests inimical to national good they can precipitate massive destruction in nations.Today is a day that has been specifically identified to celebrate the working-class people of the world and the various trade unions in Guyana would be out in droves, sporting the regalia specific to their individual trade unions, to join together with affiliate labour bodies and listen to their leaders as they expound on the various themes relating to the trade union movement and the extant dynamics in the working landscape in the country.

Like every country the labour force in Guyana had to struggle for various human rights and they could only achieve results by engaging relevant authorities under an umbrella body.

In January 1992, before the PPP/C won the elections later that year, the Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Factbook traced the development of trade unionism in Guyana (with the Government and ruling party being referred to being the PNC regime) as follows: “Trade unions traditionally have played a major role in Guyana’s political life. They began to emerge when Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow mobilised waterfront workers and formed the nation’s first labour union, The British Guiana Labour Union (BGLU), in 1917. Since then, union members have become a significant segment of the Guyanese working class. It was from the trade unions that the PPP and PNC evolved and drew their strength.
“Most union members work in the public sector, and trade unions historically have had close ties to the ruling government. Many of the twenty-four unions in the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the main umbrella group for trade unions in Guyana, are formally affiliated with the PNC. Unions have the right to choose their own leaders freely, but in practice the ruling party has significant influence over union leadership. Government officials are often also union leaders. For instance, President Hoyte has been named the honorary president of one of the member unions of the TUC.
“Government-labour relations have been marred by the PNC’s attempts to control and silence the unions. This control initially was secured through the dominance of the Manpower Citizens Association, a pro-PNC union. When the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) entered the TUC in 1976, the size of the GAWU’s membership (about 15,000) meant that it would be the largest union in the TUC, a status that would entitle it to the largest number of delegates. The PNC quickly contrived a system whereby GAWU ended up with far fewer delegates than it had previously been entitled to, and as such the TUC remained under PNC control. From 1982 to 1984, Minister of Labour Kenneth Denny and Minister of Finance Salim Salahuddin held very senior posts in the TUC simultaneously with their ministerial portfolios. In March 1984, the National Assembly passed the Labour Amendment Act, which stipulated that the TUC would henceforth be the only forum through which
organised labour could bargain.
“The Labour Amendment Act clearly was designed to stifle labour opposition to government policies. The law backfired, however, because reaction to it led to the ouster of the PNC-controlled labour leadership, which was replaced by leaders professing to be more independent. The main resistance to the PNC’s control of the TUC came from a seven-union opposition bloc within the TUC, headed by the GAWU. Many unions, including some of the PNC-affiliated ones, began to criticise the Government.
“In the 1984 TUC elections, the seven-member reform coalition made significant inroads. The coalition candidate for TUC president ran against the PNC candidate and won. The changes in union leadership were a clear indication of the breadth of dissatisfaction with the PNC’s efforts to roll back union power, and with Guyana’s rapidly deteriorating economy. The seven disaffected unions left the TUC and in 1988 formed the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG).”
It is now history that the first FITUG fell apart as PNC-affiliated unions and other persons with vested interests and self-serving agendas began seriously fighting against Dr. Cheddi Jagan and the GAWU.
However, the political affiliation with the PNC by most trade unions continued under the umbrella of the TUC, which used its members, under the guise of labour unrests, to create anti-Government ruckus in the country that oftentimes resulted in destruction of the survival systems, with both public and private properties looted and burnt to the ground.
This state of affairs precipitated another breakaway by dissatisfied trade unions to leave the TUC and reform the FITUG.
The United States Department of State estimated in 1990 that 25 percent of Guyana’s work force was unionised. According to a study done by that body, organised labour in Guyana was closely tied to the major national political parties. In 1990, the largest labour organisation, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), comprised eighteen unions, most of which were affiliated with the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) party. President Hoyte was honorary president of the oldest TUC member, the Guyana Labour Union (GLU). British Guiana’s best known labour leader, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, started the GLU in 1917 (as the British Guiana Labour Union) when he organised dockworkers. Another important labour organisation was the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), which represented 14,000 sugar workers. The report stated that the predominantly Indo-Guyanese GAWU was associated with the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP). Intraparty divisions were reflected in labour organisations: in 1988 seven unions left the TUC in protest at PNC electioneering tactics and formed the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG).
According to the US Department of State report, labour unions played an important role in the anti-colonial movement in the 1960s and in the nationalisation of foreign companies in the 1970s, but the close ties between the TUC unions and the governing PNC party did not guarantee that workers’ interests were always advanced. In 1988 the Guyanese National Assembly adopted a constitutional amendment under which government no longer had to consult with trade unions on labour and social legislation. According to the Government, this move was an essential step toward dismantling the statist economy. As part of the reform programme, the Government effectively cut workers’ purchasing power by repeatedly devaluing the Guyanese currency. Wage increases did not keep pace with the devaluations. Prolonged strikes followed, leading to production losses in all major sectors. During wage negotiations in 1990, the unions were again dissatisfied when President Hoyte announced across-the-board pay increases that were significantly lower than what the unions had requested. Economic stabilisation was taking precedence over union demands.
Workers in Guyana received overtime pay when they worked in excess of an eight-hour day or a forty-hour week. But in 1990, about 40 percent of the country’s workers were in minimum-wage jobs, earning the equivalent of US$0.5 per day (at December 1990 exchange rates). These low wages, often not enough to even cover the costs of commuting to work, helped explain the high rate of emigration. The Government barred children under age fourteen from working, but the United States Department of State reported in 1990 that younger children did work, often selling candy, cigarettes, and other items along roads.
When Dr. Cheddi Jagan acceded to office in 1992, he immediately restored bargaining power to the formerly silent trade unions and increased the minimum wage of public servants, which had been frozen through Hoyte’s much-touted Economic Recovery Programme (ERP – dubbed “empty rice pots” by suffering citizens) at $2,000 per month.
Today, workers’ rights are not only entrenched in the constitution and guaranteed in the national construct, but the labour force has emerged from the depths of depression and hopelessness to highly-enhanced lifestyles and brighter future prospects for upper mobility for themselves and their offspring.
As Guyana’s labour force march in solidarity today, they do so with energy and the conviction that they will not be penalised in any way by the current administration for demanding their rights, if they do not use destructive methods to advance their cause. And that their voices would be listened to and their concerns addressed by an administration that restored to them those rights in 1992.
The Chronicle salutes all workers today!