AFTER months of awaiting a voyage home, the body of late President of the Guyana Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU), and Parliamentarian, Komal Chand, was finally laid to rest last Tuesday, following a funeral service at his La Grange West Demerara home, and then cremation at the Ruimzeight crematorium.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions on social gathering, the funeral was kept small. However, many of those close to him were able to pay their last respects to the veteran trade unionist.

Those paying tributes included GAWU General Secretary, Seepaul Narine, and Carvil Duncan, president of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), for which Chand had served as a Vice President.

Those from Chand’s political party, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), included Presidential Candidate, Irfan Ali; former President Donald Ramotar; and former government Minister, Clement Rohee.

A longstanding member of the PPP/C, Chand served on the party’s executive and as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the party since 1992. The funeral was also attended by Speaker of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs.

Chand was described, during tributes, as a “disciplinarian”, “hard worker”, and “instrumental” in the fight for uniting workers to fight for their rights.
Seventy five-year-old Chand died in Cuba on April 8, after a prolonged period of illness. Chand had travelled to Cuba, with his wife, Rukhmin, in early March for the medical check-up.

However, shortly after the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spread across the Caribbean, affecting restrictions on air travel, the body could not have been brought home.

In May, the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) granted approval for the body of the late trade unionist to be brought to Guyana from Cuba, and such was achieved on July 24.

Chand joined the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) in 1975 as the union’s organising secretary and later served as the organization’s President up to the time of his passing. Described as an individual who was committed to his work, Chand dedicated his career to fighting for the protection and rights of workers in the sugar, rice and numerous other industries in Guyana.