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28 June, 2010
Ref: ICEM10/EN LT70
25 June 2010
Mr Manzoor Nadir
Minister of Labor, Human Services and Social Security
Co-operative Republic of Guyana
1 Water and Cornhill Streets
Georgetown, Guyana
Transmitted to e-mail [email protected] and fax number +592 227 1308
Dear Honourable Minister Nadir,
I write to recap our meeting of 15 June 2010 in the offices of the ICEM in Geneva, Switzerland. Firstly, the ICEM Secretariat is grateful to you for initiating the meeting while you were in Geneva for the 99th gathering of the ILO’s International Labour Conference. We agree with the assessment in your subsequent News Release that the meeting was cordial in nature and for the ICEM’s part, we believe it could serve as an initial starting point to resolve the now seven-month dispute between the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers’ Union (GB&GWU) and the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI).
The hard work of engagement through tripartite voluntary dialogue must now commence, and we were happy to hear of your willingness to facilitate this dialogue between GB&GWU and BCGI. Therefore, as you agreed to in our 15 June meeting, we call on you to immediately call both parties together to start open and honest talks.
As we mentioned in the meeting, ICEM is troubled by what we believe has been undue pressure by BCGI management to intimidate and coerce workers of the mining company to de-authorize the GB&GWU from their legitimate role as workers’ representative. We sincerely feel it is the role of the Labour Ministry to ensure that this does not happen, and if the matter of union representation does go to a poll of workers, we insist that the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board uphold global labour standards as set forth by the ILO, meaning that management of BCGI must not interfere in workers’ free choice for or against union representation.
Besides attempting to reconcile the past difficulties between the two parties, ICEM stands hopeful that a facilitated meeting by you between GB&GWU and BCGI can establish voluntary and mutually acceptable ground rules to be used in any recognition poll. For this, the ICEM sees unimpeded access to the workplace by GB&GWU representatives to speak one-on-one with workers, as well as assuring that the 57 discharged workers, all union activists, have an opportunity to address fellow workers to tell their side of the firings. Since the government of Guyana retains 10% of this enterprise, we are hopeful that this can be guaranteed.
As we told you in our meeting, the ICEM is ready and willing to participate in dialogue in Guyana to successfully resolve this dispute, or even to play the role of observer in a poll. I look forward to your response on this, and your follow-up to our meeting.
Lastly, and as a separate issue from the GB&GWU/BCGI dispute, we are encouraged by your willingness to introduce ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, in your country, and to begin the internal process toward ratification. As we told you in our 15 June meeting, Guyana has much to gain on the international level by ratifying this important ILO Convention, particularly at a time when mining accidents and resulting deaths are escalating due to demand and rapid extraction of mineral resources.
The ICEM stands ready to assist the government of Guyana in any possible way in this regard to make Guyana the 25th country worldwide to ratify ILO Convention 176.
Again, we are grateful to you for initiating the 15 June meeting, and we are hopeful this will be a harbinger of better tripartite relations between your government, BCGI, and GB&GWU.
Sincerely,
Manfred Warda
General Secretary
Cc: Leslie Gonsalves, GB&GWU