THE coalition government came to office on the promise to teachers, when in the opposition and on the campaign trail, that there shall be the highest paid workers. The society was advised that Collective Bargaining will be respected and there will be no more impositions of wages/salaries by the coalition.

Over the last three years the coalition has had a chance to prove itself and workers have waited patiently for fulfilment of the promises. Without the least warning salary for the president, government ministers, and all parliamentarians have seen increases, in less than six months, by as much as 50 percent.  Let me pause to remind society that though the opposition PPP opportunistically condemned such an act, not one, including the leader, refused to accept this increase.
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, as someone who is seen as fighting for years for the working class, in weighing in on the issue of increased pay is asking workers to be patient and has attributed the imposition of wages/salaries to that of an interim increase, while hoping to appease aggrieved workers by saying ministers will not get an increase for 2018.

The prime minister fails to recognise that a comparison of the un-meritorious increase given to ministers, that did not see the same consideration for workers, reveals that the sum offered to workers vis-a-vis what they received, would take workers years to catch up with them, even if ministers’ salaries see no increase.
The particular issue of the teachers’ threat to go on strike reflects an ambivalence by government to treat with issues and have them resolved. The APNU+AFC government came to office aware that the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) had a proposal on the desk of the Minister of Education. The issue of negotiating a new agreement has been in the public domain, but it was not until the teachers threatened strike action that the coalition began to treat this matter with deserving respect.

President Granger has consented to meet with the GTU on Monday, but this engagement could have serious consequences for both workers and government. The President cannot attend this meeting with the expectation that he will just deal with the formalities and not resolve the burning issues. It would be a grave disappointment and mistake for the President to only attend to the mundane issues and formality just to have the matter return to the minister for discussion.
Workers can no longer be merely pacified, for the matter has reached the stage where workers, having exercised tremendous patience in the face of years of economic deprivation, look to the President to alleviate their suffering by making decisive decisions. Where the workers’ concerns are not addressed, such can see continuous hardship, loss of confidence in the government, their hopes dashed to the ground that neither the previous nor current government was/is prepared to address their needs adequately. As Head of State and Government, an engagement with the union is seen as the last resort for finding resolution to an impasse that has been running for the entire life of this administration. This is much too long.

Failure to not resolve the impasse, given the industrial and political climate, stands the risk of proliferating into something else and this government would have created the environment for destabilisation in the society.  Though the GTU has called off the strike notice, this does not mean that the option no longer exists. Government must take full responsibility for whatever happens and workers must not be blamed for anything.
The government’s approach to addressing issues pertaining to workers has to change. The reluctance to respect Collective Bargaining, labour laws, time-honoured principles and employers/management negotiating with the unions cannot be countenanced. This also reinforces the notion that nothing is given to the workers without a struggle and employers do not give workers anything unless they are united in struggle.
This government, like the previous government, shows a lack of willingness to learn the historical lessons, both local and international, of workers/trade union struggles. Society should recall in 1999 the Guyana Public Service Union, in the era of Janet Jagan, whose posture in dealing with the trade union movement lead to a 57-day strike, during which workers were shot by state police, being the only instance where government’s guns were turned against workers in the post-colonial era, with the last instance being the shooting of sugar workers in 1948 by the colonial police.

Some may have a false sense of security that the workers and their unions are sympathetic to the government, failing to realise these workers have been suffering for decades and they have been looking for relief, patiently so for the last three years.
For 12 years public servants have had to suffer the imposition of wage/salary increases and after looking forward with hope that the government they helped to elect is treating with issues of labour with the similar disrespect as the previous administration, no right- thinking person can be annoyed with workers in exercising their right to pursue legitimate industrial action, as enshrined in the Guyana constitution.
This administration owes the workers substantial relief, not interim relief or promises or not increasing ministers and parliamentarians’ salaries. Real wages have been on the decline as the cost of living is on the increase, made worse by VAT and other taxation. It is hard for rank-and-file workers to survive in this country without the benevolence of loved ones, home and abroad. It is time they too live the “Good Life” and workers must remain fearless in the pursuit of this.