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8 February, 2010
The Guyana Bauxite & General Workers’ Union (GB&GWU) ramped up protests on the deaf ear its government is giving a pitched labour dispute it has with Russian metals company RusAL by picketing last week the offices of the Minister of Labour, Human Services, and Social Security, as well as the company’s offices in Georgetown.
Some 60 union members and supporters staged the manifestations on 4-5 February, and picketing is expected to continue this week. The GB&GWU has broad support across the northern South American country for reinstatement of 57 union activists that were sacked following a spontaneous strike action in late November. The strike was conducted by some 200 of 500 miners employed at the Aroraima bauxite operations in the central portion of the country.
GB&GWU picketed the offices of Labour Minister Mansoor Nadir on 4 and 5 February
The strike occurred following an exchange of contract proposals in efforts to reach a renewal collective agreement.
Immediately after the strike and sackings, the Bauxite Co. of Guyana Inc. (BCGI), 90% owned by RusAl, made the unilateral announcement that it no longer recognised the GB&GWU, a violation – the ICEM believes – this runs against international labour standards, as well as Guyana’s Trade Union Recognition Act.
Despite numerous attempts by the union to involve Guyana Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Labour, Human Services, and Social Security Minister Mansoor Nadir in efforts to resolve or mediate the dispute, those initiatives have gone unheard.
On 5 February, union pickets the Georgetown offices of RusAl
Thus lacking a formal avenue to remedy the dispute, the GB&GWU took the matter to the Ethnic Relations Commission, since all 57 discharged miners were of African descent. In an early January hearing, the GB&GWU asked the commission to convene a full public inquiry into the sackings but instead, the commission’s chairman went to the worksite to interview bosses and workers without the union present.
The ICEM is concerned that for the past two months BCGI management is coercing and intimidating miners to sign statements abandoning the union, a contradiction to Guyanese law and global freedom of association standards. The ICEM has written to the Russian mining and metals multinational in hopes that it will correct the unfair decisions of its BCGI managers regarding the terminations and abrogation of the collective bargaining relationship and that letter can be found here.