| The construction of the Marriott hotel without any Guyanese workers is an “atrocity” that must be stopped, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) declared yesterday.The GTUC said that the Marriott construction contract violates the constitution which guarantees Guyanese the right to work. As such, the GTUC is putting together a team of lawyers to correct what it sees as a breach of the constitution. .“The constitution says you have a right to work; you can’t go and sign an agreement and say you are giving away my right to work in this country to somebody else,” the GTUC stated yesterday.The GTUC intends to write to the Prime Minister and opposition political parties for there to be full disclosure of the details behind the Marriott project in the National Assembly. It also wants the National Assembly to note the fact that Article 22 of the Constitution guarantees “the right and the duty to work.”“We will do everything within the confines of the law to put an end to this atrocity,” Norris Witter, President of the GTUC said yesterday.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 citizens’ rights to work in the country are being violated and as such we need to mobilise,” added Lincoln Lewis, General Secretary of the GTUC.The government over the weekend said that it bargained with the Chinese contractor to lower its construction cost by US$9 million in exchange for freedom to choose its own workers, and so the Chinese workers were brought in.“The government has lost the moral authority to govern,” the GTUC stated.“When a government is taking taxpayers money to fund this project and at the same time denying taxpayers the right to be involved and benefit directly from their hard earned money, that is re-colonisation,” Lewis charged.“This abominable act is akin to the tactic of the colonial masters who used the colonised (people) for their personal benefits and in the instance of a sovereign nation suggests there may be kickbacks involved,” Lewis declared.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 Trade Unions Congress, this is the same as saying that Guyanese workers are lazy. It also gives the Chinese company the go ahead to employ foreign workers and flout the labour laws of this country.The government also claimed that Guyanese lacked the required skills for the project. The GTUC said that this claim is misplaced and dishonest since Guyanese are the ones who built the infrastructure of Guyana, including the Guyana Pegasus, the seawall, the Demerara Harbour Bridge, “all of which were considered phenomenal feats at the time of their construction.”The government’s claim that the language barrier was one of the reasons the Chinese firm hired Chinese workers makes no sense to the Trades Union Congress. It said that any contract entered into force should have the criterion 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 – $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 operations is posing a headache for the government busy trying to prove that the project is feasible. Previously advertisements for investors in the restaurant, casino and nightclub have had no takers and the advertisement was again placed in editions of state newspaper, the Guyana Chronicle.The government has a special arrangement that guarantees the private investors that they would get their money back if the project folds.The government is participating in the project by way of equity, in the sum of US$4 million. This is being committed through NICIL. The equity contribution determines the government’s strength in Atlantic Hotels Incorporated – the company created to see the project through. As it stands, the government is currently the sole shareholder in the company.However, apart from the equity contribution, financing for the project would also come from “subordinate loan stocks” of US$15 million invested by NICIL. Adding the US$2 million, NICIL will end up spending in development costs for the project, including design and other preliminary studies altogether, US$21 million.So, in total, the amount of money the government is pushing into the project is just about what it should cost in Guyana to complete the project, industry experts say.The need for the additional US$40 million remains a mystery. |
