Dear Editor,

REFERENCE to a letter by Fredrick (Freddy) Kissoon in the Stabroek News dated Friday, May 31, 2019. I would first like to say that on many issues I do not support his views but at the same time he is entitled to free expression.

Secondly, I agree with him that the University of Guyana Unions should and must remain in the Guyana Trade Union Congress (GTUC). The unions in the GTUC have been and continue to be in solidarity with the bauxite workers, the sugar workers, the University Unions, the Teachers’ Union, the Guyana Local Government Officers Workers Union and in a small but somewhat insignificant way, with the United Minibus Union (UMU) and the Guyana Market Vendor Union (GMVU).

However, GTUC and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Guyana (FITUG) have, over the past couple of years (after 2015), been marching and sharing the same platform on Labour Day and it is being touted that the Trade Union Movement is more united now than ever before. I personally believe, that is a fallacy, since lions and hyenas are traditionally enemies and in centuries to come, that will not change. What we have here is that the marriage is incestuous and is meant to benefit some key players of similar character but not the workers that make up their membership.

I find it very strange that whenever a GTUC meeting is called (special meeting, since its monthly statutory meetings are hardly ever kept) whereby a selected few are invited and members of FITUG outnumber the GTUC Executives.

I agree with Freddy that the General Secretary is a one man show at the GTUC and the Critchlow Labour College (CLC) and that he decides who becomes GTUC President and Registrar and I would never forget his brutal removal of the late Colonel Godwin Mc Pherson, the then Registrar, who was instrumental in having the college subvention restored which was later stopped for reasons better left unsaid. The ‘A Partnership For National Unity’ (APNU) Government restored the college subvention after ascending to office and the General Secretary was livid at the amount offered and threatened not to accept same. The government however, continued to honour that commitment and wisely attached conditions, before that subvention is released.

The management skills and strength of the late Colonel Mc Pherson was so overpowering, that he had to be gotten rid of. The source of his betrayal was similar to the betrayal of Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, and affected him to his grave. Intellectuals like Dr. Roopnaraine and Aubrey Norton, were forced to leave the college. David Yaw and I, the two Administrative Assistants, had to go since we supported the managing and academic programmes set by Dr. Roopnaraine and the late Colonel Mc Pherson. Even senior staff, Leslie Gonsalves, was fired since he did not appear to be loyal to a fellow Bauxite Trade Unionist.

I had stated in my letter to the Guyana Chronicle dated 20-01-2018 (page 6). The GTUC needs to treat with matters of national importance such as the GUYSUCO workers’ severance scenario as a collective, and not for GTUC Executives becoming aware of such matters by seeing writings on same for the first time in the tabloids.

While the General Secretary was ranting and almost driven to tears on the sugar workers’ severance scenario, it should be known that Dr. Roopnarine, the late Colonel Mc Pherson, David Yaw, and I, never got our severance and other benefits due to us since, parting ways with the college in 2008, not forgetting fees stills outstanding for more than 30 Critchlow Labour College, Georgetown and about 12 CLC Linden lecturers. Lecturer Clifford Blackett (deceased) had to take the college to court to get what was due to him.

The General Secretary’s article on page seven of Stabroek dated Saturday, June 1, 2019 is just for good reading that has some historical information, but very little that can stand up to scrutiny. The UG Unions have been in the GTUC for many years while the United Minibus Union has been there for a few years and as he had done before with the UMU, he is attempting to publicly embarrass the UG Unions by stating that informal/non-traditional unions have no collective labour agreement, subtly indicating that the GTUC is doing these type of unions a favour by accepting their membership and that they must know their place, seek nothing, ask no questions, query nothing and be silent, but what he is not aware of or he chooses to conveniently ignore, is that, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), recognising that labour is being assailed by a global dynamic that is eroding the master/servant relationship, and that what is evolving is an army of self-employed workers and that the ILO has added to its Constitution ‘Recommendation 202’ to accommodate, capture and retain these types of workers.

On May 11, 2018, the ILO Caribbean Office, in the persons of Luis Enoff and Ariel Pino, came to Guyana to meet specifically with the executives of the UMU and the GMVU. This meeting was held at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) Sports Complex, where they advised that the NIS advocate legislation to ensure NIS compliance for the informal/non-traditional sector. The General Secretary needs to be a team player and I hope that he does not take offence to my missive as is his comportment, since he himself said in his letter ‘no one should be excused from scrutiny in their public doings, NO ONE.’

The GTUC is a workers organisation and not the personal domain of anyone. It is there to develop, support and advise its affiliates and other like organisations and should never engage in the dishonourable act of poaching on other Unions.

Regards
Eon Andrews
Vice President
G.T.U.C