Dear Editor:
REFERENCE is made to a letter signed by “concerned employees” working at the Bauxite Company Guyana Incorporated (BCGI), titled: “Conditions at the so called slave camp” (Guyana Chronicle, 24/2/2016). The gist of the instant letter referred to a 4th February meeting held at the Ministry of Social Protection among ministry officials, the trade union and BCGI management, and other extraneous, though disturbing matters.
There is empathy for the workers at BCGI who were put in an undignified position to sign a letter, of which content they (1) know nothing about and (2) speaking of conditions in the working environment that do not exist. It is unfortunate that in the 50th year of political independence, when Guyanese have their own laws guaranteeing their rights, that workers at BCGI are placed in position, where in order to feed themselves and families they have to sit or stand on their dignity.
The instant letter said I called the Personnel Manager a “white man.” The Personnel Manager is white and male, and I am unaware he would have preferred being identified by another race or sex. In reference to the attribution of “slave masters,” words to that effect were said by me: “My forbearers fought against slavery, indentureship and colonialism. We fought the slave masters and I will not allow anyone to come and impose slavery once again on us.” I stand by this comment. The fact that Guyanese workers, in their own land, are being forced to sign their names to a document on matters they know nothing of and speak to conditions of work that do not exist, make the point.
Only the BCGI management was at the 4th February meeting and to have workers sign to what they did not witness or participate in exemplify the fear and intimidation that pervade the workplace. The claim in the letter that conditions of work are decent is false. The falsity is borne out in recent media reports which carried pictures that exposed the terrible conditions under which workers are forced to work. Workers also took the opportunity to bare their souls to the minister who visited the site. Let me repeat, I empathise with these workers who were threatened to sign the letter. When this letter was being circulated for signatures, the security department was told by a named sergeant that if the guards do not affix their signatures they would lose their jobs.
The author(s) of the instant letter who have threatened and placed workers into the compromising position of having to sign the instant letter is a lesson for this government that refuses to enforce the laws in bringing resolution to a six-plus year-old matter that is seeing citizens/workers having to work under continuous indignity reminiscent of the pre-independence era.
It ought to be said that it is not an indictment on the “concerned workers” who signed the letter; rather,it is a plea to government to rescue them from continuously being abused, physically, mentally and financially. In this year when independence talks and boast of the right to self-determination is being bandied around, we must ask ourselves the question: what manner of government as it mouths independence would ignore the laws and subject some citizens to conditions of work, whereby they are put in position to kneel in order to feed themselves and families?
Regards
Lincoln Lewis