Georgetown: Under the theme “Workers Unity and Solidarity Paramount Now!” the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) Sunday held a Conference attended by 160 delegates at the Union’s Conference Room in Kingston, Georgetown. Attendees came from Enmore, LBI, Wales and Uitvlugt Estates, Noble House Seafoods, Demerara Distillers Limited, Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation, National Parks Commission, Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee (SILWFC), and CARICOM Rice Mills Limited. A similar Conference will be held in Berbice during the first quarter of 2016 to pave the way for the Union’s 21st Congress scheduled to take place not later than the last quarter of next year (2016). The Union’s Constitution requires the holding of two Area Conferences between Congresses. The Union’s General Secretary presented the General Council Report of the Union. He addressed the gathering for one hour and forty minutes and spoke to twenty-nine matters including the vexed issues – award of a day’s pay for every 85,000 tonnes of sugar as Annual Production Incentive (API) to sugar workers and the Corporation’s flouting the Union/Corporation Recognition Agreement in not entering into Collective Bargaining with the Union for the first time in twenty-six years. The Conference also addressed the non-resolved issues affecting the union members in some non-sugar bargaining units. It also noted that the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee (SILWFC) has failed to address the Union’s claims for a salary rise and improvements in other conditions of work for its employees. The Conference denounced as well the Demerara Timbers Limited (DTL) for its failure, so far, to meet with the Union under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Protection with a view that the Company’s employees who are far away at Mabura Hill, some 160 miles away from Georgetown, could have their wages and salaries adjusted in the light of the high cost-of-living there. Conference also passed unanimously resolutions on Education and Training, on Unity of the Working Class, on Wage/Salary increases and API for 2015, on the National Insurance Scheme, and on the state of wage rise for workers at SILWFC and DTL. A resolution was also passed to pre-empt the closure of any estate and the sellout/privatisation of the sugar industry. According to GAWU in a press missive, it is steadfast in holding its Congresses, Area Conferences, Annual Branch Conferences. It strives to have the functioning of its branches to ensure an active link, as far as possible, with its rank and file. Statutory meetings of the Central Executive Committee and the General Council are held throughout the year. GAWU has yearly audited statement provided by the Office of the Auditor General. The Financial Statements for year ended 31st December, 2014, have already been issued in accordance with Section 22 (1) of the Trade Union Act, Chapter 98:03 of the Laws of Guyana. “This is verifiable testimony to the Union’s democratic nature and adherence to statutory regulations,” GAWU noted. Delegates at the Conference are to return to their respective workplaces imbued with a reinvigorated spirit to continue to weld stronger unity and solidarity among themselves, to forge ahead with their struggles, for an urgent settlement of their API dispute and the opening of purposeful negotiations, though already late, on their 2015 wage/salary claim. Delegates also agreed that solidarity with the smaller bargaining units like those at SILWFC and DTL may need the support of the Union’s bigger and productive bargaining units.
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