| By Leon Suseran“Mo money mo wuk!”; “7 per cent cyan’t wuk!”; “What must go? VAT must go!” Those were some of the chants by the workers of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) Berbice branch during the Annual May Day March yesterday in New Amsterdam.The march was led by Executive Member of the GPSU,Marlon Humphrey Jersey, Kempton Alexander, along with GPSU Berbice Head, Mr. Ram Mangru. Several police officers, nurses and other civil servants joined in the special celebration which concluded with a rally at State House in the Town.GPSU workers in Berbice marching into State House on May Day 2013Notably absent from this year’s rally was the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and Mr. Mangru lamented the fact of a smaller involvement in the march this year. “It is indeed a sad situation to see the labour movement dwindling away gradually out of this region, for what reason, I don’t know.But what is speculated is that some of the unions want to build crowds in Georgetown to show that they have large numbers of members and, so, they choose to take their members to Georgetown.”He said that the GPSU is proud since it is celebrating 90 years of existence in Guyana “and we are still going strong as ever…despite the hurdles and struggles that we are going through”.He added, 90 years ago, 21 senior public servants gathered at the St Andrew’s Kirk in the city to discuss the plans of the Civil Service Association. In those days, in 1923,Deion Sanders Falcons Jersey, it was British Guiana,Throwback Jerseys, and trade unions were restricted.“The struggles of workers in this country caused them to form the civil service association to protect their rights”.Workers’ rights were trampled upon in those days and sadly, he stated, nothing has changed today. “Ninety years after, we are here gathered with the expectations that things could have been better…but what we are witnessing today is the trample of the rights of workers in the country, the denial of better conditions at work and better salaries. Public servants are living testimony to what you are going through in this country!”Mangru alluded to the nurses’ strike at the Linden Hospital as well as the West Demerara Regional Hospital,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, “for things that they are supposed to be enjoying and are being deprived…protesting working conditions at the hospital—I know many of you here today who are working in the health institutions who can probably say better than I do, about your working conditions.”“The emphasis on workers in this country is very poor. They are being denied the right to work and being labeled as ‘lazy’ as people who do not have the skills to work.”Mr. Alexander,Fernando Rodney Jersey, Senior Nurse at the Georgetown Public hospital Corporation,NFL Jerseys From China, and Executive Member of the GPSU then read Mr. Patrick Yarde’s message to workers for May Day 2013.Meanwhile the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union held a separate May Day Rally with the high attendance of government officials at the Port Mourant Community Centre Ground, after a march through Rose Hall Town, Corentyne. |
