Chairman, Leaders of the Trades Union Movement, workers, officials, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
When I was invited by letter to deliver the feature address and declare open this 6th. triennial Conference of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), I hesitated particularly as I looked at the calibre of my predecessors for the last three Conferences. In 2009, it was Senior Counsel Ashton Chase who is arguably the most knowledgeable person in Guyana in the law and practice of labour matters. He was followed in 2012 by Mr. Donald Ramotar, then President of Guyana and three years later by Dr. Nanda Gopaul who has had a proud and active association with the labour movement and more particularly with the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees of which he was once the General Secretary.
I accepted, so I must deliver, whatever my concerns, reservation and nervousness.
In this presentation, if you do not shout me down earlier, I want to deal with some of the troubling issues confronting the labour movement and the country. The order of topics is sugar, next I will speak briefly about oil and successive governments’ failure to protect the patrimony of the country and the interest of the people. I will then turn attention to the disunity and leadership crisis in the labour movement, government and labour, and threats to democracy. Continue reading “Address to the 6th triennial Conference of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG)”