…Chand says GAWU’s members are from all the parties

PRESIDENT of the Guyana Agricultural and General workers Union (GAWU), Komal Chand says he does not have to consult with the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on matters concerning retrenched sugar workers. He insisted that the union is independent and represents workers who are supporters of all of the political parties in the country.
General Secretary of the PPP, Bharrat Jagdeo at a news conference on Saturday said he was upset with Chand for the position he took at a meeting with the government two Fridays ago. Jagdeo also hinted at the removal of Chand as President of GAWU saying that the union had young bright minds who can lead it. A top union source said that they will fight Jagdeo in his attempts to destroy Chand a long standing trade unionist. Sources in the PPP had told the Guyana Chronicle that the attack on Chand has widened the inner-party divisions. Chand is seen as one of the few Jaganites remaining in the PPP. The source said these divisions were caused by Jagdeo, who unilaterally dumped the long-standing policies of both the party and the union against privatisation of the sugar industry. “Jagdeo discarded a policy held sacred since Dr. Jagan was at the helm. He did so without the consent of the Central Committee or party congress,” one stalwart said, asking not to be identified by name.

Jagdeo had declared: “Now that the termination has been done … we were opposed to it — closure of these estates but we will push…we hope that we can get decent private investment into these estates. This is a position that we have changed, because we were saying ‘no closure,’ but now that there is closure, there is no job that we can… we can get decent investments into this,” Jagdeo was quoted as saying by Demerara Waves. He said the PPP would support any initiative with “decent investors” to get jobs for sugar workers, adequate land, more cash for small loans and immediate payment of accurately calculated severance.

NO NEED TO CONSULT
Meanwhile, in an interview with Guyana Chronicle on Monday Chand declared that there was no need to consult with the opposition party, despite him being a senior member of that organisation and a Member of Parliament representing that body. After much resistance toward government’s plans to transform the financially strapped Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), the conclusion of a meeting between unions and the government two Friday’s ago saw GAWU and other unions commending the government for seeking to honour payments to retrenched sugar workers and claiming the positive exchanges that were had.

However, Chand himself posited that a “smear campaign” has been launched against him for what seems to be his support for government as they feverishly search for a sum of $4B to pay the retrenched workers. Chand explained that despite being a longstanding member of the PPP and a MP, GAWU is independent and separate from the party. “We are GAWU, we have our organisation. There was no need to consult with them (opposition). We do not having to meet with the opposition about this issue or that issue. Our union has members who belong to the APNU and AFC, all the parties. So we have to be careful, we have mass members, we can’t represent the PPP, AFC or APNU positions.” The trade unionist continued that prior to meeting the government team two weeks ago, GAWU spoke with the representatives of the thousands of workers within GuySuCo and a collective stance was taken. “…you could not physically reach all the persons, but we consulted with the representing body, the executive committee. So we had a collective position…,” Chand stated.

However, the position to not report to his political party may have cost Chand some points, since a call for his removal as head of GAWU is coming from his own colleagues at Freedom House, some observers say. It is believed that Chand’s failure to discuss the union’s plans with his party may have upset the organisation’s primary leader(s) since again, observers believe, any sense of stability or partnership between government and the union would spell negatively toward the PPP/Opposition’s agenda.

Former long-serving PPP member and public commentator, Ralph Ramkarran weighing in on the issue in his Sunday Stabroek News column stated that, “Chand’s tenure as head of GAWU is within sight.” Ramkarran who had served the PPP for almost five decades, believes that the attack against Chand and calls for his resignation could be the work of the Opposition Leader who has so far positioned himself as head of the party, surpassing senior members such as Clement Rohee, and former President Donald Ramotar, among others. Ramkarran claimed that with Chand as head of GAWU, the union is not fully under the PPP control. He said, “By meeting with President Granger, perhaps without consultation with the PPP leadership and taking a position which may not have been cleared with the leadership beforehand and which runs counter to the campaign of the PPP against the closure of the estates, thereby demonstrating a modicum of independence, it has clearly attracted the ire of the PPP leadership.”