THE Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) has reiterated its commitment to re-uniting the local trade union movement after several years of rift with some of its affiliates.
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the National Association of Clerical, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NACCIE) since 1999 withdrew from the GTUC, calling for constitutional and other reforms within the trade union umbrella body. Along with GAWU and NACCIE, two other unions, the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU) and the Guyana General Workers Union (GWU) have revived the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), which was originally comprised of these four unions along with three others in 1988.
At a press conference hosted by the GTUC at Critchlow Labour College, Woolford Avenue, General Secretary Lincoln Lewis said the umbrella body is committed to trade union unity.
"The Guyana Trades Union Congress has at all times been consistently, unreservedly and totally committed to unity of the trade union movement," Lewis reiterated.
He added: "The TUC, firmly and unequivocally states that while we will always embrace the noble and cherished ideals of trade union unity we cannot and will not allow other interests to prevent us from carrying out our responsibility to defend and protect the legitimate rights of workers."
However, Lewis conceded that a committee established by the GTUC headed by its President to meet with GAWU and NACCIE in an effort to have them return to the fold of the GTUC has failed to hold any meeting so far.
One of the Vice-Presidents of the GTUC, Charles Sampson, who is a member of the committee, expressed the view that regardless of what is done the unions will only return to the GTUC when instructed by politicians from the government, accusing them of siding with the government.
However, another Vice-President of the GTUC, Grantley Culbard, reminded his colleagues that an agreement between the two sides, to which he signed as a witness on January 17, 2001 had stated that constitutional amendments of the GTUC and other concerns listed in the agreement should be addressed within 21 days from the date of the signing of the agreement.
Culbard further contended that the issues listed in the agreement should have been addressed in efforts to have the FITUG unions return to the GTUC.
Lewis said it is of concern that GAWU and NACCIE withdrew from the GTUC when it called a three-day solidarity strike from May 19-2, 1999 which was in response to the government turning "guns of the police" on workers in the vicinity of John Fernandes wharf, resulting in 17 persons sustaining gunshot wounds.
He contended further that the action of the police in May 1999 is a repeat of the incident of June 16, 1948 at Enmore where colonial police fatally shot five workers.
"It is therefore of grave concern to the TUC that a repeat of the same action occurred in May 1999 where guns again were turned on workers that has led to the withdrawal of GAWU and NACCIE from the TUC fold," Lewis charged.
Minister of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Dale Bisnauth, recently added his voice for unity within the labour movement.
Speaking at the 48th Delegates Conference of NACCIE, Dr. Bisnauth exhorted union leaders to stop bashing each other and play politics and to seek ways of reuniting the labour movement.
He also urged the unions to get back to the basics because the "cry of the heart is for rice and bread."