Aroaima strike
Union, management propose resumption terms
Stabroek News
December 3, 2003
Aroaima representatives and executives of the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) yesterday began talks to end a six-day-old strike at the Berbice River bauxite operations.
The sides, in a meeting mediated by the Ministry of Labour, each presented preliminary proposals for ending the industrial dispute and working towards arriving at a Terms of Resumption (TOR) agreement, GB&GWU Pre-sident Charles Sampson told Stabroek News yesterday.
According to Sampson, the sides will resume discussions at the ministry this morning with the hope of making some headway in reaching agreement on the TOR.
However, he sees management's refusal to honour the negotiated wages agreement as a major stumbling block to the TOR.
Sampson on Monday had told Stabroek News that new General Manager John McLeod was refusing to honour commitments made in negotiation with the company's management with respect to increased wages for 2003 and 2004.
Stabroek News was yesterday again unable to reach Aroaima's management on the strike.
However, McLeod in an interview with this newspaper in October had indicated his intention to work towards reducing the cost of production as well as bringing the company to a cash-neutral position.
McLeod, an Australian who replaced Morris Stuart as GM on October 8, had cited one of the biggest challenges as the moving of mining operations from one bank of the Berbice River at Aroaima to Kwakwani when the ore body of the former comes to an end.
Speaking about the cost of production, which he termed a 'killer', McLeod had said that it had to be halved to ensure the survival of the company.
With world market prices at US$16-US$20 per tonne, Aroaima would have to produce its metal grade bauxite at US$8 per tonne or less to be able to replace equipment and meet some of its other costs.
Meanwhile, workers continued their industrial action for a sixth day yesterday. (Oscar P. Clarke)