AFTER six months and two weeks of assiduously preserving a barrier across a section of the Berbice River, as a form of industrial resistance, the last of the vigilante employees of the Russian-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Incorporated (BCGI), last Friday, quietly rolled up the rope and left the river.
Though the employees are unsure if they will ever see justice for their resistance, they do not see the effort they made as having been in vain, gratified in just having been able to have maintained their fight as long as they did.

“It was six months two weeks, and that’s history in the making; I don’t think anybody ever fight the Russians like how we did. They came under tremendous pressure for the short period of time that we block that river there,” shared Garfield Brutus, who was one of the last two employees who left the river last Friday.
Even so, having to see the fight come to an end, without a resolution, was not easy for some.
“It was really hard,” expressed Ephraim Velloza, who worked as a Truck Operator at BCGI, and was also a union representative for the workers. He too is still proud of the effort that the workers put out

“It wasn’t like all that we put in was a waste of time, it didn’t fall on deaf ears. But there’s nothing else we can do personally. We need the intervention of the government. We ourselves we shut up shop.”

The employees had been vigilantly guarding the blockage at Landernsville, since January 23, days after the BCGI had laid off 142 employees.
The employees were further bolstered in their resistance when RUSAL then terminated 326 local employees on February 2, and suspended operations.

The blockade prevented the company from transporting materials or equipment from its Kurubuka Mines in Region 10, which the employees saw as their only leverage in getting attention for their grievances. In original demands, the employees had called for the re-hiring of employees; the addressing of compensation for two employees who suffered electric shock while on duty, in December 2019, and increases in wages and salaries.
Over the months, the employees had even had to defend their blockage against confrontation with the Guyana Police Force (GPF) when officers had descended on the area in February. The police presence was eventually removed.

With just two employees remaining, Brutus said, they are not looking forward to coming up against any future confrontation with law enforcement.
MOVE ON
“We decided to move because we don’t want another problem like what we had before. We don’t want any bloodshed. When the police came there we had a lot of problem with them with guns and those things,” Brutus said
The employees are now leaving it in the hands of their union, the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GBGWU), to see if anything will come from their months of struggle. The GBGWU is a subset of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), which, last Friday, had already begun discussions on the RUSAL issue, when it held its first meeting with the new Minister of Labour, Joe Hamilton.

Grievances between the Russian company and its Guyanese employees have dated as far back as 2009, spanning the changeover of three different Ministers of Labour, and two different political parties serving in government.

“Right now we trust nobody but God; we can’t trust humans like ourselves because they make promises and they don’t fulfil them. So we just decided to remove the rope, and let the GTUC take up the matter, because we can’t fight by ourselves anymore,” Brutus said.
RUSAL is a 90 percent stakeholder in BCGI, while the Guyanese government owns the other 10 percent, managed by the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).

The employees had been awaiting the results of the March 2 elections to see how the situation may develop going forward. With the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) declared the new government earlier this month, it is hopeful that negotiations will continue.
“We don’t know what this new administration will do about it, they still will be given a chance because the GTUC will be taking up the matter, so we leave it now in the union’s hand to see what will happen,” Brutus said.

It is uncertain what has become of the 326 employees who have since left the company. Brutus is currently at home, unclear of his future.