Playing out one’s political agenda on an industrial platform

Dear Editor,
The GTU has called out teachers on a strike that they consider to be a “legitimate” cause. However, the facts are there to prove them blatantly wrong.
When I say the facts have proven them wrong, I am talking about a union that has called a strike when discussions are still in progress in the collective bargaining stage. If that does not make this strike illegal, what does? But when you have a political party hack standing as a union representative, this is the result.
The Government has held talks with the teachers’ union, from which much headway has been made; but there is still more that has to be done. Like all sectors of our economy, it is an ongoing process; however, calling a strike is not one of them. What needs to
be done is stop the politicking, let good sense prevail, and get back to the bargaining table. The strike will do the teachers no good, as well as the students who have to write the Grade 6 and CSEC Exams.
But let us take a quick but detailed look at what the GTU, through its politician General Secretary is saying:
1: She contends that GAWU was dealt more favourably by the PPP/C party when on strike than the GTU. Wrong! Let me inform Miss McDonald that it took the PPP/C, when in opposition, to secure the severance package for the sugar workers after they were brutally fired from their jobs and the only means for sustenance, the sugar estates, were closed. This was done two years after they were severed. So, may I ask Miss McDonald how these workers, most of whom had families, existed during those two years?
2: McDonald keeps harping on the issue of sugar workers being disproportionately enriched while teachers can barely survive. Again, I ask the question: how were those sugar workers and their children to live during those two years when they had no work and no severance, which never happened to teachers?
The point is that when the PPP/C Government came into office, they had two pressing problems to solve: getting the industry back on a sound and prosperous footing, while at the same time getting those workers back into the mainstream place where they can work and earn a decent living.
3: On the low-down, racist and tribalistic comment of the Sugar Industry being looked at in a favourable light because it is a workforce populated mainly by persons of Indian ancestry and a stronghold of the PPP/C. Well, let me educate Coretta: Sugar, as it stands has always — I repeat, has always — been a beacon of hope and prosperity for all of Guyana. Could she give a sensible explanation as to why Burnham taxed sugar to bail out the Afro-Guyanese people in Linden? This is a documented fact wherein one industry was used to shore up the lives of another, and for which there was no reciprocity.
4: Staying on the same racist nonsense of Indo-Guyanese being singled out for special attention, then why was the uniformed groups’ Christmas bonus taken away from them? Here again, another sector of workers that have a heavy presence of Afro-Guyanese were – as it was told in no uncertain terms that they ought to be servile in their mentality, never to question “Massa PNC.” What is more revealing is that it took the PPP/C to correct it.
These are the things McDonald needs to come to grips with before she blows hot air unnecessarily.
5: Isn’t this the reason why the supposed industrial action has had such a low turnout? Make no mistake, that strike is seen as a political stunt by the PNC, which has failed miserably. Those teachers who have stayed away from school are not — I repeat, not — supporters of the strike, but have done so because of the threats meted out to them and the fear of vindictive actions by some heads who are heavily vested in the PNC’s political vendetta. This is a serious issue that has to be addressed.
6: Coretta McDonald is again making a brazen attempt at becoming a thorn in the side of the Government. What she could not achieve in Parliament, she is now trying desperately to play out on the streets. She reiterated the sentiments of her party as Volda Lawrence had stated, “I am looking for people who look like me to give jobs in the Public Service.”
In essence, McDonald is showing the public that some in the teaching service are theirs, and they will take to the streets. But this strike is a flop, and it continues to expose the diabolical plot of that party.
7: But McDonald is putting her foot in her mouth, in that it took a Dr Jagdeo to bail them out of their miserable state when “Their government” inhumanely ignored them. The triennium was in its fourth year (4) year when nothing was forthcoming from “Their Government” who had promised them 10%. Now divide 10 by 4 and you will get 2.5%, this is what the APNU/AFC Coalition gave teachers, which was also burdensomely taxed by Jordan. In essence, they got nothing!
Now that the PPP/C Government is in office, the GTU expects a windfall over and above every other sector in the economy. This is not going to happen, because each sector has to be developed proportionately; none having pre-eminence over the other.
The strike that is going on now is a desperate attempt by General Secretary Coretta McDonald to score political points under the facade of industrial action. But it has backfired on her and her party; the strike is a flop; it only exposes her as one whose efforts at tribalising this country have not worked, nor will they ever work.
What she needs to understand is that the Guyanese people are wiser now. We have come a long way out of that racist mould of race-baiting. As “One Guyana”, it means that we do not cater for viewing things from a racist standpoint. In the New Guyana, we view things in their rightful place, “One Guyana” means moving forward together as one people.

Respectfully,
Neil Adams