WORKERS at the Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI) downed tools on Friday morning protesting the Russian management’s imposition of a one per cent wages increase.

“This is an embarrassment to all Guyanese. The workers’ protest was responded to by management at a meeting held where they were brutally told that they will be fired if they do not return to work within the day, that they can seek redress wherever they want, and to hell with the government,” the workers representative, the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU), said in a release.

The operations at the mines and maintenance departments have come to a halt. According to the GB&GWU, Article 147(2) of the Constitution of Guyana protects the right to strike. “And whereas in the Collective Bargaining process strike is considered an industrial weapon to be used whenever the circumstances become necessary, all are reminded that since December 2009, under the noses of successive governments, BCGI has been engaged in a series of violations of the law and transgressing of the workers’ rights. The management continues to refuse to treat with the recognised union of the workers’ choice, the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU).”

GB&GWU said it has since informed Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle, of the industrial action taken by the aggrieved and deprived workers. “The union stands in solidarity with these workers in the exercise of their basic rights and for the upholding of their attendant rights. GB&GWU calls on all Guyanese to understand the struggles faced by these workers, to empathise with them, and to lend them your support. GB&GWU calls on the international community for its solidarity. The continued violation of BCGI workers threatens multiple family units and the entire communities within which they reside. The threat to one is a threat to all; and injustice here is an injustice everywhere.”

According to the union, workers of the BCGI have been suffering since under the previous government and continue to suffer under the current. “How many more have to suffer, how many families and children have to suffer? As Guyanese, citizens of the world, one and all will have to face the reality now. The best defence for the unaffected lies in the protection of the rights of those around them. GB&GWU calls on the government and opposition to intervene immediately and stop this violating of the Guyana constitution and the Rule of Law and the transgressing of the workers’ rights by a foreign sovereign power.” The union said the matter is no longer a simple labour issue. “There seems to be a hidden agenda with potentially dangerous consequences that both the government and opposition should take immediate action on. This is about a nation’s sovereignty and national interest, the respect for worldwide comity. “