MAY DAY 2016
HON MOSES V. NAGAMOOTOO
PRIME MINISTER OF GUYANA & FIRST VICE PRESIDENT
Mr. Chairman,
President and General Secretaries of GTUC and FITUG,
Esteemed Ministers of government,
My wife Sita,
General Secretary of the PPP and other members of Parliament,
Union Members. Brothers and Sisters
I sat here today listening to the free expression of criticisms of our 11 month government and I realised that today is historic. For there to be this open freedom, free expressions, I could only recall the words of Martin Luther King: “free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Today, I bring greetings from the Government of Guyana, from President David Granger who could not be here as he is abroad attending a summit on energy, to field, factory and office workers, especially the disciplined forces for whom some advocacy has been made (we hear you!); essential services employees, doctors and nurses who couldn’t be here; and prison wardens.
I bring greetings to workers who are ill or injured; workers in our hinterland; workers in mines, quarrying and forestry concessions, who also couldn’t be here, to celebrate with us the most important workers’ day.
I heard so much love expressed her today for workers: we MUST honour ALL agreements made by the former government; that these are binding.
Should we honour agreements that do not provide for Guyanese workers to be hired on projects by foreign companies?
Do we honour agreements that hive off our electro-magnetic spectrum, our radio and TV licenses, to friends, families and cronies?
Should we honour agreements that give away our forests, millions of hectares, in exchange for honorary doctoral degrees?
Do we honour corrupt agreements that allow the rape of our forests and the plunder of our minerals?
But when I heard my brother and good friend, Lincoln Lewis, speaking, he found everything under the sun for which he could criticize and indict this 11-month-old coalition. I remember when I was teaching in West Berbice. I was at the cinema at Rosignol and an old man in the front seat was moving from side to side. Someone in the back tapped his shoulder and asked why was he doing that. He explained that he was working in a ship, but was retired, and he was left with the motion of swaying side to side.
Brother Lewis has practised that speech for over 20 years and he doesn’t realise that the old ship has gone, the government has changed, but he is left with the motion.
Independence
Friends, 50 years ago, right in this park, Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan, two irreplaceable, national leaders, embraced.
As we welcomed independence as a sovereign nation, that embrace had symbolised national unity. It was short lived.
Now Burnham & Jagan Children are telling us
we must live in Love Harmony, Peace & Unity.
Today, 50 years later, when we are observing our Golden Jubilee as an independent state, the two factions of the labour movement – TUC and FITUG – embraced.
Today is a celebration of working class, ethnic and national unity ….even symbolically so. Let us hope that this is the first, giant step towards the reunification of the working class movement in Guyana.
Last year, on this day, when David Granger and I joined the march, it ended up at two separate venues. It was our version of labour apartheid.
Today, there is apparent reconciliation. There still remain two factions, but one march. Let the healing begin, not only among our trade unions but among our people, especially our working people. No more should we have, as we saw in the recent local government elections, a political party campaigning to mobilise only one ethnic group, all for the sake of power – even at the village level!
Homecoming
For me this is homecoming, today. I have always considered myself as a labour man. The labour movement has been my political incubator. The red flag, for me, remains the symbol of struggle and the banner of our Guyana revolution.
As a politician and journalist, i have came to know over a period of 40 years some of the finest trade unionists like Joseph Pollydore (and I find the motion to honour him, meritorious), Ashton Chase, Harrylall, Boysie Ramkarran, Bertice Bangaree, Gordon Todd, the brave George Daniels (whom I met again for the first time since 1989), N.K. Gopaul, Komal Chand, Norris Witters, Patrick Yarde and, yes, my friend Lincoln Lewis, and many others.
They have invariably stood at the cutting edge of struggles, and at times viewed as “enemies of the state” due to an authoritarian, political impulse that had intruded into the labour arena.
Today, we must leave that past behind us.
I can assure you, that you have friends in government.
You are our allies and partners.
Labour forms an important part in our model of industrial, trade union and participatory democracy.
Just as I had done throughout my career, I came to government with a genuine commitment to labour. In the 2015 coalition Manifesto I said this:
“The success of our plans depends on genuine partnership between state and investors, and with trade unions and workers. There must be a new day for both business and labour”. Page 7.
Our Manifesto pledged (page 25) :
1. Restoration of collective bargaining throughout the public service. Collective bargaining has been slaughtered in Guyana some 20 years ago. Yet, today we hear about “collective bargaining; collective bargaining; collective bargaining” coming from those who presided over the funeral rites of collective bargaining!
2. End fragmentation and restore solidarity and dignity to the labour movement
3. Restore the check off system for automatic deduction of union dues
4. Ensure that Guyanese are employed at all projects
5. Provide subvention to all legally constituted and functioning trade unions. Do you hear? Subvention for trade unions!
6. Restore the government subvention to Critchlow Labour College to ensure that there is reproduction of union leadership through training and that the children of workers secure an education.
7. Reform and modernise public service
8. Establish a salaries review commission
On the latter, I wish to this:
We are committed to pay salary increase for 2016 after submission of the COI report. It is this government that has decided to reform the Public Service, and part of this reformation is not only a training college for you but to have a commission to evaluate what you do and have stratification of job responsibilities and assignments so that you can be compensated in accordance with your work.
Instead of one-off, we would wish a long-range arrangement that goes beyond wages and salaries. We want a return to merit increments. We must reward hard work and honesty. We must professionalise the public service and restore respect and commitment to duty.
New Arrangement
Much has been said as if this government, which is a partner of labour, has been sitting on its hands in these last 12 months. But I want to let you know that the contours of this new arrangement I talked about have been emerging:-
(A) We paid a small, modest, wage increase then top it up with a $5,000 incentive
(B) We increased the minimum wage to $50,000.
(C) We raised income tax threshold from $600,000 to $660,000. This benefits 68,000 workers.
(D) We raised old age pensions and increased the number of these pensioners by 18%
(E) We zero-rated more basic, essential items free from VAT, amounting to over $180 million
(F) We reduced the price of gas and diesel at the pump
(G) We reduced the residential and commercial GPL energy charges
(H) We resumed transfer of subsidies to sugar workers. A tranch of $3 billion was made this year. But we hear here that the coalition does not love sugar workers. No mention was made that even whilst we were in the opposition, we voted as bailouts for the sugar industry, some $17 billion of taxpayers’ money. Those who say they love the workers did not say that they spent $47 billion to repair a sugar factory, Skeldon, that became a white elephant; that they placed the industry in $82 billion debt.
(I) Of course, i didn’t agree with how the announcement of the closure of the Wales factory was done. It think it was a public relations disaster. And I had asked the Agriculture Minister and Guysuco to meet the workers, talk with the workers, explain to the workers what to expect. I could not bludgeon Guysuco’s board, because they would say “Nagamootoo politically interfering”.
(J) We are committed to helping all workers that was why we reduced the toll for the Berbice Bridge crossing, and provided river taxis for school children.
(K) Under the five “Bs” initiative, many more children benefit from school buses, boats, bicycles and even breakfast.
(L) But some came here and complained that we painted the buses green. When you have rats in your house and need a cat to catch them, do you ask whether the cat is white or black? No. All you want to know is whether the cat can catch rats.
(M) I am sorry but my friend Lincoln must make up his mind whether he wants to hunt with the cat or run with the rats!
Labour bill
These were small measures to bring some relief to our working people, especially the working poor. They cannot cope with wages alone. But the impression is being given that our government has made no provision for wages and salaries.
This year the coalition set aside $43.8 billion for wages and salaries, as employment costs; and an additional $6.6 billion for benefits and allowances. The state carries a bill of $50.4 billion for workers.
Any increase has to await the report of the Commission and negotiations, to ensure that we follow procedures, and best practices as regards the relations between government and trade unions, and allow the process to take its course. I will not discredit the Commission that is called the Luchman Commission that is trying to complete the stratification and adjustment to the public service for fixing wages.
We have guaranteed the salary bill for labour in spite of great pressures to fund unforeseen cases like:-
• El nino, where we funded irrigation and dispatched pumps to help farmers; and dug, no drilled, wells in the Rupununi which was hardest hit by the drought.
• We had to divert monies to fight Zika which, in spite of the prayers by some, did not develop into an epidemic. We have six cases but it took the resources and attention of our medical services to contain it thus far.
• Then we had to deal with the prison riot, the left over problem of the former regime. You couldn’t have 1000 prisoners at a place made for 600. That was known before. So we inherited a recipe for a riot.
• We inherited other left over problems like the cases that the brilliant minds of the former regime lost and we have to pay billions in settlement of court orders, which we cannot and will not disobey.
Brothers and sisters, we know that change of government has brought great expectations that all of life’s problems would be resolved. Your expectations are not without reasons, as workers and their families have suffered for much too long from official neglect and even contempt.
But we must never forget that just a year ago, we inherited a broken economy, a wounded country. The obsession to stay in power resulted in:-
*prorogation of parliament
*no 2015 budget when due
*slow down of public sector investment programme during 2014 and 2015.
We must never forget that just 12 months ago:-
*Guyana was a bottom of the human development index
*Guyana at bottom of corruption perception ladder
*Guyana was the suicide capital – “an unhappy country”
*Guyana was a crime haven and killing field as 40% of our youths were without jobs, and 30% of our people were below the poverty line.
We deplore the wanton crime wave. We are resolved to provide public security but we must also tackle the problems of poverty, joblessness and hopelessness.
New vision
Yes. We have our troubles. But we must have fresh hope. Like the phoenix, we can rise from the ashes. We can be great again. We can, if we work together.
Look around you: before, when the rains set up, we had floods. When the maker up there sneezed, we drown. But we didn’t to remain in water, in the deluge, in the floods.
Today, you didn’t have to hold your nose as you passed the corners.
What you saw today was done with the miracle hands of workers. And we are thankful to these workers who literally cleaned the clogged drains with their fingernails, and removed the slush even if they didn’t have long boots and gloves!
What you saw today, was the result of purposeful leadership and cooperation.
We are becoming clean again. Our garden city will blossom again. Our towns and villages will live again!
Imagine, with more wealth, what we could become?
When we become an oil and gas producing nation? This will bring bountiful promises but also Great challenges for our labour movement. Our unions …..petroleum engineers and environmental specialists….new intelligencia of the new economy…
Therefore, i place you on alert, that we must work together, to ensure that our sovereign wealth would benefit our future generations and secure a future for generations to come.
Our government has delivered on the fundamentals that would ensure progress. We held local elections, as promised. We are building partnership and open governance
Labour or social protection
For us, labour is much more than fighting for wages and salaries. We are concerned about the social protection of workers. The Ministry of Social Protection must not only be concerned with labour issues, but the all-round protection of our workers. It must look into housing for workers, environmental safety, sexual harassment at places of work, child labour, trafficking and prostitution of our women, gender equity and domestic violence and family planning.
The State must protect workers not only as workers but as citizens.
We rightly have a Ministry of Social Protection and I applaud Minister Lawrence for carrying the burden of ensuring that we have not only to deal with wages but the social problems of our working people. We need the general approach; we must not take the tree for the forest.
So, today, I can go on and on to answer all the issues raised. But I do not want to politicise these celebrations.
Again, I wish you well. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Long live the working class of Guyana and the world
Long live the Cooperative Republic of Guyana!
Do not follow De Rat
End Racism and Apartheid
