Dear Editor,
It has been almost three weeks since Guyana Goldfields Inc. announced that it has been sold to Silvercorp Metal.
After that announcement, the subject Minister for mining and environment, Raphael Trotman, said that Government welcomes the deal and takeover by the new company, and that workers of Goldfield Inc. have been assured that their jobs would not be affected by the new management.
It has been more than two weeks since, and the company has announced that approximately 85% of 530 workers are likely to lose their jobs. The Minister, and his Government by extension, have once again lied to the workers at Goldfields. To date, Government has remained silent on the hundreds of workers who would be on the breadline and the hundreds of family members who would be affected.
How could a Minister and Government welcome a deal, the end result of which is job losses to the tune of hundreds? The Minister and his Government, even after chalking up a “legacy of huge job losses” over the last five years while in office, continue to lie to workers.
NMWU is calling out Minister Trotman and his incompetent and lying Government on this issue, and its deafening silence since the Goldfields’ announcement to send hundreds of workers home.
Once again, we are faced with the sad issue of jobs lost in the mining industry. Mining remains the largest contributor to Guyana’s gross domestic product (GDP), but what are the success stories of mining workers? Today, it is heart-wrenching to see the hard-working men and women in the mining industry being treated like the “minerals they work as disposable resources” by companies.
A stronger Local Content Policy is needed, since foreign companies continue to bring in expatriate workers to do the same work Guyanese normally do, and those are being paid more money.
Local workers and expats are working side-by-side of each other, doing the same work with identical job descriptions, but locals in the end have no success stories to brag or boast about, even as the expats leave Guyana’s shores with the lion’s share of the spoils.
NMWUG remains hopeful for a miracle and positive turnaround for Goldfields; that the jobs lost would be minimal at this time, when jobs have become like a scarce commodity.
Sincerely,
Sherwyn Delano Downer
President
NMWUG
