The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) workers on strike are being threatened, according to the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU).

GPSU president Patrick Yarde on Friday rejected the notion by Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon that the GGMC workers’ strike is as a result of their contention that recommendations by consultants are not being carried out by the management and the administration of the GGMC. He labelled the notion as misleading.

Yarde, during the union’s first press conference for 2015, said that it was brought to his attention that threats and other forms of intimidation have been levelled at the striking workers of the GGMC. “The union wishes to seriously warn the perpetrators to desist from this conduct which could result in serious consequences”, the GPSU president added.

GPSU President Patrick Yarde, sitting at centre, speaking during the press conference on Friday, in the presence of GPSU officials and GGMC workers on strike.

He further noted that the GPSU remains committed to its obligation to collaborate with the Board of Directors of the GGMC in an effort to resolve the outstanding matter, “but under no circumstance will it sacrifice the constitutional right of workers to strike action”, Yarde said at a hastily-summoned press conference.

In response to the claim that the workers are striking because of the failure of GGMC’s management and administration in carrying out recommendations by consultants, Yarde said that he wondered if Dr. Luncheon could be “deliberately so misleading… out of touch or so dishonest.”

According to Yarde, the GPSU for years has been experiencing frustration in finalizing several aspects of representation to the GGMC. He said an example was a draft collective agreement which was submitted in 2008 and which to date, has not been finalized although the commission and the union had reached agreement on all the clauses.

He opined that that was so, because the GGMC after reaching agreement with the union, sent the agreement to the Ministry of Labour for advice, “which as far as we are aware this advice has not been forthcoming.”

Additionally, Yarde said that ministerial supervision of the GGMC shifted from the Prime Minister to the Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, who “sought to have the cabinet’s concurrence for the Commission to proceed with the Agreement.” He further mentioned that while that situation existed, the GGMC contracted S. V. Jones Associates for a consultancy focusing on the development of the human resource base. That exercise, he added, commenced in 2008 and that “the commission was focusing on the S. V. Jones proposal while obstructing the completion of the negotiations of the Collective Agreement with the Union.”

Referring to a letter by the GGMC dated May 6 2014 inviting the GPSU to discuss the matter, Yarde stated that evidence is available of the union’s actions challenging the situation. He added that it was not until 2014, that the GPSU was meaningfully involved in discussions of the S. V. Jones Associates report and recommendations on the development of the human resource function. “In this regard, you are cordially invited to a meeting to discuss the proposed mechanisms for implementation of the Consultant’s recommendations on Thursday, May, 8th, 2014 at 14:30hrs, in the boardroom of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission” the letter stated.

On that note, Yarde told members of the press that contrary to what Dr. Luncheon said “misleading the public,” the S. V. Jones Associates report and recommendations were significantly approved by the Board of Directors of the GGMC and the funds were contained in the budget to meet the additional expenditure.

In addition, Yarde said that the GPSU met with the S. V. Jones Associates on May 8, 2014, when it was decided that a joint (commission/union) committee would examine all the aspects of the approved recommendations. However, Yarde noted that that exercise was very challenging and was not completed. Furthermore, he said that there is now resistance to the continuation and completion of what was agreed to. “This resulted in the workers of the GGMC taking industrial action on November 17, 2014” the GPSU President said.

That industrial action then came to a halt on November, 21, 2014, when an agreement was reached.

However, Yarde said, in breach of its obligation under the said agreement, the GGMC had “blatantly” disregarded paragraph 7 of the agreement which provided that “notwithstanding the normal procedures for the terms of resumption, the Board shall endeavor to ensure that the outcome of the S. V. Jones Associates Proposal should be concluded within one month of full resumption of work.”

Yarde pointed out that after the life of the Board of the GGMC ended on December, 31, 2014, without addressing the obligations of the GGMC… the members of the GPSU, who he said, “see the failure on the part of the Board of the GGMC to act expeditiously as a sign of bad faith, having regard to the fact that the issues herein have been outstanding for over four years”, resumed the strike.

He added that he has since written to the Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle, rejecting his characterization of the strike action by the GGMC workers as illegal and in doing so, pointed out to Ogle “the deviation from his role of Conciliator and being impartial to one that placed him on one side to the detriment of the workers of the GGMC.”