Caribbean News

WOW! Workers chase Prime Minister from May Day rally

Workers aligned to the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Thursday chased Prime Minister Samuel Hinds from a May Day rally even as President Bharrat Jagdeo insisted that confrontation would not address the country’s problems. Holding aloft placards with slogans ‘Out de Place’ many of them cursed at Hinds as he left the Critchlow Labor College compound.The GTUC, which is the main umbrella body for trade unions in the country, has seen the Jagdeo administration as unsupportive since it removed the annual subvention given to the Congress.The situation has also caused a split in the labor movement here with a number of unions sympathetic to the government and refusing, over the past five years, to march under the GTUC banner. After the traditional march Thursday morning, GTUC affiliates rallied at the College located in the capital while members of the breakaway unions gathered at the National Park. Speaking before the departure of Prime Minister Hinds, Executive Member of the GTUC Coretta McDonald said the workers were angry at the state of affairs in the country.She charged that among the issues of concern were the high rates of electricity, attacks on freedom of speech, poor service at the Georgetown Hospital and the withholding of the subvention for the Labor College. “The issues I have raised make me angry. The GTUC has to put its house in order and it starts with the Central Executive Committee. It needs to be strengthened and this can only be realized when there is unity of purpose on issues,” she said.  In a message to mark Labor Day, President Jagdeo said that the challenges facing the country require new forms of solidarity which do not encourage confrontation and division.He lamented that yet another May Day had found the labor movement fragmented. “This is unfortunate and I urge that greater efforts be made to ensure that the causes of the divisions are addressed,” the Guyanese leader said.

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