25 January, 2010
The Guyana Bauxite & General Workers’ Union (GB&GWU) is seeking justice against the union-smashing affront by Russian metals company RusAL, the world’s second largest aluminum producer. The union has filed a racial discrimination complaint over RusAl’s sacking of 57 union activists, a move made necessary when neither the prime minister nor the minister of Labour, Human Services, and Social Security intervened to protect Guyana’s labour law.
The dispute started in November 2009, following pay talks between GB&GWU and RusAl, the 90% owner of Bauxite Co. of Guyana Inc. (BCGI) at the Aroaima and Kwakwani mines in central Guyana. RusAl managers submitted three counter-proposals for the workforce of 500 to consider, and after miners voted to accept one, the company rescinded it and announced on 1 December that it no longer recognized GB&GWU, a blatant violation of the Trade Union Recognition Act.
Allegedly, the company subsequently said at a workplace meeting that those responsible for promoting the accepted offer would be the first in line for retrenchments. BCGI had hoped to tie a wage increase with some 70 redundancies, a counter-proposal that miners did not accept.
Miners began a lawful strike on 21 November at the Aroaima mine. Three days into the strike, BCGI issued letters of termination to 57 strike leaders, all African descendants. Despite several urgent calls and letters to government officials to press RusAl on the law infractions, very little has been done. The discharge letters judged the workers “insubordinate, refusing to obey instructions” and guilty of “misconduct.”
The race charge was heard before the Ethnic Relations Commission on 8 January. The GB&GWU is asking the commission to convene a full public inquiry into the alleged discriminatory sackings because a “bilateral initiative … to engage the union; then engage the company; then engage the Minister … will not work.”
An 8 January letter by the union and the 57 discharged miners to Prime Minister Samuel Hinds expressed frustration at government inaction: “We were never charged, never summoned to answer the charges … never given a hearing yet the company has pronounced us guilty of charges. Today, as we continue to take a stand for our rights, the Minister of Labour has thus far taken the position that we do not have any rights or any recourse for justice.”
GB&GWU General President Charles Sampson
GB&GWU General President Charles Sampson, in a letter to Labour, Human Services, and Social Security Minister Mansoor Nadir, said he was “appalled” that you “have not seen it fit to intervene … to immediately put an end to this national insult.” Nadir, for his part, publicly stated in December that “we should let this festive (holiday) season of goodwill take its course and hopefully both parties will exercise more generosity towards each other.”
Six weeks later, there is little generosity shown the 57 mining families who are now impoverished in a poverty-stricken country. Guyana’s Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board did hold a 12 January hearing on the unilateral de-authorization pronouncement by RusAl, and it also heard first-hand how BCGI is now coercing workers to sign waivers to abandon the union.
The ICEM is disturbed that Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, himself a former miner and human rights proponent, has not been in the forefront of this dispute, seeking reinstatement for the 57 and prohibiting RusAl from trampling on the country’s labour code. The ICEM also cites the Russian mining and metals multinational with yet another glaring example of the company’s complete disregard toward international labour and human rights standards.