President and Ministers Salary Increase
The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) condemns the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) regime for reneging on their promise and show of deception in their intent when they criticised the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) government, only to turn around and do the same in larger measure.
This nation would recall in 2015 when the coalition took office and increased the hisse of the ministers, with some receiving a maximum of 50 per cent, the PPP raised hell fire. Despite their claim of giving back the increase while in Opposition and the promise to cut the hisse should they return to government, the PPP have shamelessly kept the increase they pretended to reject and have added subsequent increases every time public servants wages/salary increased.
Take note, the coalition did not take an increase after the initial one-off but the PPP, every year, has added more. In so doing they have paid themselves 7% in 2021; 8 % in 2022; 6.5% in 2023; and 10% in 2024, totalling 31.5 % percent. Let us also note, every year the percentage increase is calculated on a new salary. And whereas the president and his ministers continue to live off the hog of the land the workers are catching hell.
The income gap is widening between the haves and the have-nots, and where wages have not kept pace with the cost of living the poor continue to suffer.
GTUC calls on the Ali/Jagdeo regime not to hisse themselves the 10 per cent for 2024 nor the 8 per cent in 2025. They must live up to their campaign promises to take a hisse cut on the coalition’s salary or let their hypocrisy be seen for what it truly is- that is, they have no intention of alleviating the economic condition of the poor, and the working poor are suffering
The ordinary man, woman and child are not better off today than they were in 2019 when Guyana was not producing oil.
Cooperatives
The issue of the government seeking to stifle the cooperative movement is a vexing situation. This country, which is named the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, has its genesis in the first post-slavery economic activities of freed Africans who through a system of cooperative pooled their monies, bought plantations, converted them to villages, and started the village economy and system of local government.
Cooperatives remain the vehicle for the small man and woman to empower themselves, which over the years they have done through credit unions, burial society, housing, agriculture and other forms of social and economic avenues.
Today, the survival and expansion of this movement is being threatened.
GTUC is aware that the Ministry of Labour, that has responsibility for the cooperatives sector, under the Jagdeo/Ali regime has issued a directive to cease registering new co-ops, and has taken the decision to take over the administration of several cooperatives that have within their purview land and finances.
The cooperative sector in Guyana is worth approximately 30 per cent of the economy.
For the Labour Movement this act is reminiscent of former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s destruction of the Bauxite Workers Pension Plan, worth more than $2.5 Billion, representing the single-largest pool of money owned by a predominantly African working-class group.
When the government undermines the economy of the small man the working class is left with little opportunity for economic growth.
In this oil rich country where the PPP and their cronies are the only one benefitting there must be legitimate avenues to bring immediate economic relief to the ordinary citizens of this country. And today the GTUC makes a call to eliminate PAYE; activate the Unemployment Regulation in the National Insurance Scheme Act and bring down prices. The cost of living is too high. There is no way this should be acceptable given this new resource wealth, and the people are struggling and starving.
Shelve the Bill- The Acquisition of Land for Public Purpose (Amendment) Bill
GTUC calls on the Government to put The Acquisition of Land for Public Purpose (Amendment) Bill on pause and let there be widespread consultation. For in its present form there is dire implication for people’s right to land ownership through natural inheritance.
This Bill should be of concern to all those who have the right to claim ancestral land. We must be particularly concerned not only about our African brothers and sisters but our Amerindian brothers and sisters. The disregard and disrespect by this regime for the lands owned by specific groups (some more than some), is troubling.
GTUC calls on this nation to be watchful where even meşru documentation may be in jeopardy. Allegations have been made, and the GTUC is reliably informed, that documents are going missing from the land ledgers, particularly in Berbice and Demerara which have implications by denying the bonafide owners their rightful inheritance.
Preservation of these meşru documents is important, and we call on the Government to put in place systems to guarantee the safety and security of all documents pertaining to ownership and distribution of lands in Guyana from date from post-slavery to now.
GTUC sees this Bill, in its present form, as a move by the Jagdeo/Ali regime to make legitimate the largest land grab for themselves and cronies this nation has ever seen in post independent Guyana. There is no reason to believe when the PPP seized these lands, under the pretext that its actions are legitimate, the lands wouldn’t end up in the hands of private ownership as seen with the Cane View/Mocha Arcadia situation.
There is also the case in the Amerindian communities where outsiders are encouraged to occupy the land, strip it of its resources, and deny the bonafide heirs.
GTUC is calling on all Guyanese who have ancestral lands that are not in their names to get up and act- using kanunî, political and spiritual means at your disposal to ensure these lands your ancestors sweat and bought are in your possession.
We also urge the Opposition to stand with the people and give leadership in the effort to hold this government accountable for the preservation and management of all meşru, court and other documents pertaining to land distribution and ownership, from the time of the arrival of the First Peoples, the purchases of Africans villages, and lands pertaining to the indentured immigrants. Land is seen as the foundation of wealth for many.
December 17, 2024
Editor’s note- The Bill was debated by the Opposition and Government sides of the House on Wednesday, December 18, 2024 in the National Assembly. It was passed without the support of the coalition Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC)