Since the British Guiana Labour Union

Jul 21, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

It is most disappointing to note that none of its comrades has remembered that July 11, 2022 represented the 100th anniversary of the recognition of the British Guiana Labour Union by the British Government – as the first in the British Empire. The Union was actually established in the country on January 11, 1919 by Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow whose statue, designed by the artist E.R. Burrowes, can be seen erected in the compound of Parliament Building.
Interestingly, Critchlow was reported to have given Ayube Edun some help in the founding of Manpower Citizens’ Association (MPCA) in November 1937, to represent workers in the sugar industry.

The MPCA however was not given recognition by the British Guiana Sugar Producers’ Association until 1939; but it took the Union some 20 years to obtain the latter’s agreement to the deduction of union dues from workers’ wages – called the ‘check-off’ system.
By 1976 the MPCA, then led by Richard Ishmael, Principal of Indian Education Trust College, lost in a poll, conducted by the Ministry of Labour, to the PPP – backed Guyana Industrial Workers’ Union (GIWU), soon after renamed Guyana Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU). Other Unions of the day included:
– Sugar Estates Clerk Association (SECA)
– Guiana Headmen’s Union – which represented the first level of supervision in the field. The position was properly re-titled Field Foreman, and the membership extended to lower level ‘Chargehands’.

– The Sugar Estates Supervisors’ Association (SESA) – represented Field and Factory Supervisors.
– Alongside was another group that represented itself not only in Guiana, but throughout the West Indies where their members worked, with great credit to the local sugar industry. Members of the Guiana and West Indies Sugar Boilers Union (G&WISBU) were particularly popular in Barbados, Antigua and St. Kitts. Their prowess was further acknowledged by their selection by Bookers to work in new factories in Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania and to prepare the local staff to succeed them.

– The Sick nurses and Dispensers’ Association was also a recognised Union, with their membership including Certified Nurses, Nurse/Midwives, Midwives and of course Dispensers
By 1977, except for the GAWU worker categories all the abovementioned unions had coalesced into a new multi-disciplinary bargaining entity called the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE). It was this Union which confronted the GSPA and won the reduction of a 48 hour to a 40 hour work week for its membership.
Unfortunately at this time of reporting, NAACIE is not as dynamic a representative entity as it used to be in the sugar industry.

Meanwhile, to its credit, even before its formal recognition, GAWU’s activism resulted in the Zaman Ali Advisory Committee being assigned in 1970 to investigate conditions of work in the sugar industry. The Committee highlighted and consequently had the industry redress the following deficits, amongst others:
1. Water Supply;
2. Labour Transportation
3. Loading ramps;
4. First Aid facilities – including emergency transport for injured workers
5. Provision of safety equipment
The Board of Bookers Sugar Estates responded by having developed and implemented, a most comprehensive Occupational Health and Safety Programme that is operative to this day in the sugar industry.

It is regrettable that current fulminations have overclouded the memory of the country’s first Labour Union – a most historic contribution to the foundation of our society, reflecting a contradictory lack of self-respect when compared to the perfunctory spouting of acclamations of anniversaries of distant international occasions/services about which the very spokespersons are unfamiliar.

The new-comer Minister of Labour would be in order to chide the following for not briefing in time to celebrate a most fundamental component of the history of this ‘ONE NATION’:
– Guyana Labour Union
– Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union
– Guyana Bauxite and General Workers’ Union
– Guyana Teachers’ Union
– Guyana Public Service Union
and other later Unions

E.B. John
Retired Human Resources Director
BSE/GuySuCo

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