One week after the Department of Labour (DoL) confirmed that the National Mine Workers Union of Guyana (MNWUG) was deemed the recognised union for the rank and file workers of the Aurora Gold Mine (AGM), the company maintains that it does not know that the union recognition process has been completed.

In an email on Wednesday, Guyana Goldfields Incorporated, which owns AGM, informed that its position was unchanged from last Tuesday.

“There are no further updates to report at the current time,” noted Vice-President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Jacqueline Wagenaar.

Last Tuesday, after the ruling that the union was recognised, Wagenaar, via email, said the company was not told about the recognition being made official.

“To the best of our knowledge, the process to determine if there will be a union representing workers at AGM has not been completed by the Government of Guyana. The Government of Guyana has not communicated such a decision to us and our understanding is that the process is still ongoing and will take some time to complete. AGM abides by all labor laws and regulations in Guyana and has been actively engaging with workers and the Ministry of Social Protection’s Labor Office and will continue to do the same going forward,” Wagenaar said.

Following a statutory meeting of the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board (TUR&CB), NMWUG was officially declared the recognised union given that a union survey showed that the union garnered some 52 per cent of support from the workers.

The TUR&CB requires that a union garner at least 40 per cent of the workers’ votes to be eligible to represent the workers at a particular company or in a particular category. Chief Labour Officer (CLO), Charles Ogle, who is also TUR&CB’s Secretary, last Tuesday, confirmed the union’s win by 52 per cent.

Ogle, however, did not confirm if the company had been officially informed of the development. Calls made on Wednesday, to Ogle, went unanswered.
President of NMWUG, Sherwayne Downer, says legally NMWUG is the union of the employees and all that remains is the issuing of the certification, which is expected to be supplied by Friday.

“CLO informed us that NMWUG would’ve won 52 per cent in the survey conducted, and that the board made a pronouncement on August 20. The process has been completed. We are the legally recognised and binding bargaining agent for AGM employees. We are awaiting the certificate of recognition, but by rights we are the bargaining agent for the workers,” Downer emphasised.

“I don’t buy that the company was not informed, I think they were informed but they want to wait until they have been issued a copy of the certificate of recognition, well it was promised to be given to us by Friday. It was long preempted that we won because there was no other union contesting, and with a survey being conducted for one union they knew that we would’ve won.”

Downer pointed out that given the battle he has had with the company, over the past three years to gain recognition, he is not surprised by the company’s position. He is not worried and is moving ahead with putting measures in place to represent the workers.
“In the meantime the union has been doing its ground work. We are organising and mobilising our members on the ground, identifying branch representatives, and so on. And we are preparing our final list to send to the company so that they can deduct the union dues from the workers’ pay and so on,” Downer said.

Employees expressed their pleasure that the union has finally been recognised and they are eager to see just what this would mean for them.

“That’s wonderful, it’s about time, so we’re expecting a lot of changes, so now we’re going to sit back and watch and see how Mr. Downer is going to fight the battle for us and get things done because we need the changes up here,” an employee said.

It was in July that the call, by employees of the company, for a union poll was heightened after workers downed tools, on July 2, over a dispute on severance pay, which employees said aggravated an already strained situation between the employees and the company.