Police officers on Thursday clashed with workers of the RUSAL-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana (BCGI) at Landernsville where the workers are vigilantly guarding a blockage across the Berbice River to prevent the company from shipping materials and equipment from their Kurubuka mines.

The workers were further energized in their stance to maintain the blockage with news that the company may be shipping some of its equipment and machinery out of Guyana after a barge and tug with the equipment was seen departing a port at the mouth of the Berbice River, also on Thursday.

“This morning they came with guns and we had a big riot there this morning. If the rope move the RUSAL barge will pass and we will continue to suffer. We said we not moving the rope,” one of the workers affirmed on Thursday.

Efforts to contact the Commissioner of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Godfrey Statia, for a comment on the situation with the shipping out of the machinery proved futile. BCGI is currently under investigation by GRA over the abuse of tax concessions and duty free awarded.

The company was awarded tax concessions for the import of fuel and machinery.

Workers have been maintaining the blockage of the river for some two weeks now, ever since the company laid off 142 workers from January 23, citing reduced operations due to a shortage of fuel.

The company has since similarly been maintaining its plea for the workers to unblock the river. Since the blockage the company subsequently laid off another 146 workers on January 30, after the workers still remained unwavering in the blockage the company then officially terminated 326 workers on February 2 and suspended operations. The company has since said that it has paid out all severance and benefits payments to the workers, officially severing ties with them.

The situation is currently engaging the attention of the Department of Labour, which has ongoing engagement with the company and the trade union for the workers the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GBGWU).

The most recent meeting between the sides took place last Wednesday at the DoL Brickdam Office, where the company yet again called for the unblocking of the river, however the company made it clear they were not committing to the resumption of operations.

However, with severance and other benefits paid, the company has no obligation to re-employ the unionised workers. Even with re-employment, they will be entering the company as new employees.

The workers however are convinced that the company has already taken a decision to entirely close down it operations in the in Upper Demerara-Upper Kwakwani region, and they believe the company simply wants the river unblocked to ship out as much more bauxite as they can before they shut up shop.

The employees say they simply want to be paid what is owed to them before the company leaves.

On Wednesday, police first turned up at the blockage and removed it, however by late Wednesday evening it was restored, and the workers have set up around the clock look out to guard, what they see as their right.

“We are saying that we’re not giving up, we’re fighting because that is our rights and we are not moving from here because that is our right if we have to stay there until elections, that is our position,” an aggrieved worker established.

The police returned on Thursday, but encountered resistance from workers and other residents from the Hururu and Landernsville communities in their attempts to again remove the blockage. A video capturing some of the encounter was capture and has since been circulated on social media.

Though the company had declared that it would have rehired the workers if they had unblocked the river, the workers, and their Union have persistently maintain that they are looking for more than rehiring, and refuse to take any less that all their demands being met.

Aside from the rehiring of the employees, the Union is asking for the addressing of compensation for two employees who suffered electric shock while on duty; as well as the addressing of the negotiations of increases in wages and salaries. They want the increases to be paid retroactively to the fired workers.

The union and the company have spent the past year trying to agree on a new CLA, inclusive of an agreement on increases in wage and salaries for workers. They agreed to work on the document following the pacifying of a similar situation in February 2019 whereby the company initially fired 61 workers and subsequently fired another 30 workers. All of the employees were eventually rehired in March 2019, and the company and the Union agreed to begin working together.

In August 2019, the union asked for the wages and salaries negotiations to be dealt with separately.

The negotiations hit an impasse when the company made a final offer of a six per cent increase and the union called for a minimum of eight per cent, to rectify what they said is a disparity between what workers at BCGI are being paid, against what equivalent workers at other bauxite companies in Guyana are offered.

On August 24, the union wrote the DoL asking for the commencement of conciliation, the next step in collective labour bargaining. The union has since been asking for the conciliation to be declared deadlocked and for the discussions to move to arbitration.
A process whereby an independent tribunal makes a decision on the matter and both sides are bound to the decision.