Marriott Hotel controversy…Unions slam Teixeira’s claim of racism

Feb 20, 2013 News

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– say  Govt. guilty of discrimination

Trade Unions who have launched a protest with political parties against the all-Chinese labour force on the Marriott Hotel project in Kingston, have denied claims that their protest is racist in nature.
On Monday, Presidential Advisor on governance Gail Teixeira described the protest action as being “stink of racism.”
But union leader Lincoln Lewis yesterday said that Teixeira is confused and has her arguments wrong.
“It is the Guyanese workers who are being discriminated against,” charged Lewis. He said that the government is facing the heat and so wants to play the “victim” game.
He asserted that the ruling PPP government is “a master at twisting the story”. Lewis said that it is ludicrous for Teixeira to suggest to the Chinese government and people that they are not liked by the unions and opposition political parties.
He stressed that the protests have nothing to with the Chinese, per se, but the protest is against the Guyana government which has failed to secure the rights of its workers for a project that their tax dollars are being spent on.
“The deliberate outsourcing of jobs to foreigners…on the backs of taxpayers, when Guyanese are equipped to do these jobs, speaks to an abuse of authority and demonstration of the lack of concern/respect for the people whose dollars are funding the lifestyle of their elected officials and who ultimately will be saddled with the burden of repaying these loans,” Lewis said in a letter to the press.
Lewis argued that the jobs of the President and legislature, which also comprises the Executive, are secured from the standpoint that such positions, according to the Guyana Constitution, should only go to Guyanese.
“Were this position different, the President and all holding these titled positions would have been fighting, tooth and nail, to secure their right to play a role in the nation/people’s development,” Lewis stated.
He said that governments are elected to safeguard and advance the wellbeing of the people “and where they fail to uphold this respect, it is incumbent upon the people to fight to secure it.”
Lewis dismissed as “wishy-washy” the statement by Winston Brassington, the head of the government investment arm NICIL, that the use of Chinese labour was a cost-saving strategy. He said this argument has no merit when a government has foremost responsibility to its citizens to ensure they engage in productive activities, one of which is to guarantee their right and duty to work.
Lewis added that no government operating on behalf of the people and with genuine concern for their wellbeing “will tell them you are taking their tax dollars to engage in projects, but you will not give them first preference to work.”
The Trade Unions are calling for the contract to be examined in the National Assembly with respect to the fact that any act on behalf of the people be consistent with the Constitution, and in this instance, a premier focus being Article 22 ,which guarantees “the right and the duty to work,” and create legislation to protect Guyanese labour with foreign companies and ensuring foreign contractors know English, the nation’s official language.
In late 2011, former President Bharrat Jagdeo officially turned the sod for the construction of the hotel with the promise that the project would create hundreds of jobs in the construction phase, and beyond, when it becomes operational.
The government has said that it bargained with the Chinese contractor to lower its construction cost in exchange for freedom to choose its own workers, and so the Chinese workers were brought in.
The government also argued that employing a Chinese workforce was a better guarantee for construction at the rate the company would want.
According to the Guyana Trades Union Congress, this is the same as saying that Guyanese workers are lazy and it also gives the Chinese company the go-ahead to employ foreign workers and flout the country’s labour laws.
The government’s claim that the language barrier was one of the reasons for the Chinese firm hiring Chinese workers makes no sense to the Trades Union Congress. It said that any contract entered into should have the criteria of language compatibility to cater for the Guyanese workforce, so there should be no excuse for shutting out local labour.
The only money so far being put into the Marriott project has come out of the public coffers, some $2 billion of it has already been handed over to the contractors and there is no sign of the investors the government talks about.
Private investors are expected to contribute US$27 million, but even the low end of the operation is posing a headache, since the government is busy trying to prove that the project is feasible.  Repeated advertisements for investors in the restaurant, casino and nightclub have had no takers.

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