Guyana: Educating union representatives, delivering Decent Work

Guyana: Educating union representatives, delivering Decent Work

'When I listen to the stories of the workers who didn't get any schooling it makes me very determined to give them all the help I can - even if it means staying up till 4am. It also made me want to learn more and read up so that when the stewards come to me with questions I should be able to give them answers.' Narda Mohammed - project coordinator

This project, funded by DfID through the TUC has been running for nearly a year. The aim has been to train 180 stewards from the two agriculture unions in Guyana, particularly in five key labour laws. As part of this project, a number of these stewards will also be trained to run briefings and workshops for their members on the estates which produce Guyana's key crop - sugar. This project is a pilot to test the materials and methodology used in order to be ready to run a longer, more thorough project funded through DFID's civil society challenge fund. In addition, a manual on Guyanese labour laws for stewards is being developed and will be published at the end of the project. Jorge Chullén, the global sugar project co-ordinator for the International Union of Food workers (IUF), has been managing the project, with Narda Mohammed being the local co-ordinator. The project is overseen by a joint committee of two unions - the Guyana Agricultural and General Work­ers Union (GAWU) and the National As­sociation of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE).

As the project manager for the GMB, I went to Guyana in January 2011 to see how the unions were getting on and to observe the course. This has been delivered at the GAWU education centre in six groups, each doing an initial week's training, followed after a few months by a second week. The stewards evaluate their progress after each session and at the end of the second session take a test and do group presentations on case studies to demonstrate how much of the legislation they have absorbed and been able to use in their workplaces. Six of the stewards (three from each union) have taken on the role of tutors to disseminate their learning locally to their members. I attended the second week's session of group four and two workshops run by stewards on estates (Skeldon and Uitvlogt).

The study week consisted of sessions on: the five Acts, history of Guyana, the economy of Guyana, the sugar industry and a cultural evening where the stewards performed sketches about issues in the workplace and society, HIV/ AIDS and prostitution and also songs and dances. Everyone worked very hard - sometimes until 4.00 in the morning! - and participated enthusiastically in all the sessions and discussions. Since most people had travelled quite a distance to attend, the course was residential and we all stayed in the GAWU centre. The two workshops were held on the estates and were led by stewards who had previously attended the course. The first one was at Skeldon and had sessions on the role of women and Health and Safety. The second one was at Uitvlogt on the role of the shop steward, the Trade Union recognition Act and the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act. I was able to give a brief outline of the situation here for GMB and the union movement generally at each of the sessions.

I interviewed some of the shop stewards attending the week session and some of the tutor-stewards, as well as Narda Mohammed, who is the local project manager.

Sarfraz Haniff

Sarfraz is a NAACIE shop steward at the Albion Estate. He has worked for GUYSUCO (the Guyana Sugar Corporation and a major employer) for two years. He has worked in the stores for five months and previously worked in the office in the wages department. When he attended the first session of the course he was a new shop steward and didn't know how to fulfil the role at all.

'Some of the branch officers: branch secretary, assistant branch secretary and safety rep, work with me in the stores, so we are able to work together on issues. Asbestos is one of the problems and we are building a case around it. It's on the roof and the dust falls on us. We only get a white dust mask to protect us. The safety rep attends the safety committee so he is involved. We are documenting respiratory problems and the workers have all signed a petition.'

'I was on a temporary contract that was renewed many times. After attending the first week of the course I realised that this was wrong. You work for three months then they lay you off for a week and take you back on a new contract. Sometimes you end up working over 4 months without any contract also you don't get any holiday pay. I took this up with management and got a permanent contract. I was also able to get all my back holiday pay as they owed me three days for each three month period. In my case this was twelve days. While I was looking into this I found out that nine other people were in the same position so I took this up with the branch secretary and we have got all their contracts made permanent but the case is still ongoing as we have to get their holiday pay.'

Ramesh Seepersaud

Ramesh is a NAACIE shop steward and has worked for GUYSUCO for 23 years. He has been a steward for one year. He was an active GAWU member and was promoted to foreman so joined NAACIE. He became a steward because they were fighting for a wage increase and doing a job evaluation.

'After the first session of the course a telephone operator came to me and explained that he was on a temporary contract and had not had his annual leave. He had worked for over a year without any contract and wanted his leave because he had relatives from abroad coming to visit him. I took it up and he got the 4 weeks' leave that he wanted and also a permanent contract. The human resources department then realised that there was another person in this position and gave them a permanent contract too.'

'I work at Skeldon (where there is a brand new state-of-the-art sugar factory) in the maintenance workshop. The old factory was full of asbestos and although they have built this new factory they forgot about the workshop, so we are still working in the old building. People come from the other estates and take parts from the old factory to fix theirs. The roof of our workshop is made of asbestos. I told the company safety officer and he just said: 'You're not working in there, just go in and take your tools'. They say they're going to build a new workshop, but there's no sign of it yet. The other staff don't care, but I am taking it up.'

'I want to change the composition of the branch and get more active leaders, because we've just had a strike and we need to be more militant to get something.'

Mohamad Ahamad

Mohamad is a GAWU member and has worked at the Rose Hall sugar factory as a welder / fabricator for 26 years. 'I fix what they break'. He has been a shop steward for 13 years and been involved in Occupational Safety and Health for 9-10 years. He is on the safety committee for the factory and for the whole estate. He has studied a 60 hour course in Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) at the University of Guyana Institute of Distance and Continuing Education and done 80 hours of GUYSUCO in-house training. He is the only worker who has had this level of training in OHS. He already runs sessions on the social aspects of alcohol and health awareness across all the GUYSUCO estates. Most of the sessions are in the evening and the workers are paid to attend. Mohamad is also a passionate reader and exhorted all the stewards to read as much as they could.

'I came on the first GAWU / NAACIE / GMB training course as a student as I always come to training if a place is available as I like to gain new areas of knowledge. The tutor who gave us the OHS session was a lawyer, but she got a scholarship to study in the US so she left. I went to the third class to observe and then at the fourth session I gave the workplace scenario while the tutor gave the law. I eventually took over and have given the rest of the session 'A' classes and all the session 'B' and some of the one day estate workshops. You need to put it into words that the members can follow, because the legal language is difficult.'

'I have a great passion for Health and Safety. I love doing it. Management have their H&S officers so the unions need to have theirs. I have been applying to the estate for the job of H&S officer since 2003, but there's always an excuse because I'm a union person. I would like to go to university and study for two years to get a proper qualification.'

'I will continue being a tutor on the one day workshops as I believe it is very important. The greatest barrier is communication. Not all the reps are educated and need help with things like note-taking. I need to work with all levels of reps according to their needs. If the rep messes up, then the union messes up. These courses have been very good. The topics are an awakening for workers in general. Before, we couldn't source the documents we needed. Now we have started it is up to us to go deeper. I think we need to do complementary skills: IT, communication skills, conflict management. We need to learn about management.'

Fazil Khan

Fazil works as a field worker on the Blairmont Estate. After doing the session 'A' course he led an electronic communication course at Albion Estate.

'I was encouraged by Jorge, Komal and Narda to do an IT course, although I didn't know anything about it before. Then they encouraged me to teach on the one-day workshop at Albion. The government and GUYSUCO have collaborated to make IT available to the workers, so they set up a facility with computers. The workers and their families can use them and non-workers in the community. The workshop we ran was about encouraging people to learn about IT, as many of the workers were nervous about taking part. It is free training and they can get knowledge on computers, but they have never used them so they don't realise how simple it is. I am a field worker with them and when they saw that I can learn it, they were all willing to try it. All the people who came to the workshop signed up for the IT course in the new centre. Now they can use it at any time and book times for courses. I feel nice about knowing that my colleagues will know about this as well as knowing their rights. We can use e-mail to keep in touch and express solidarity.'

Narda Mohammed

Narda came to work for GAWU more or less straight from school and has worked there for six years. GAWU used to offer free classes to school students so she attended one and then applied for a job. Firstly she worked with the credit union for three months, then she trained at the national library for two weeks and came back to GAWU as a librarian. The President's secretary was then on maternity leave so she took over and has been there ever since (six years later).

'The research officer started our women's group and I was nominated chairperson. I then became more involved in union work: meeting workers and writing articles for 'Combat' (the GAWU Journal). I went to lots of union seminars and training sessions and wrote reports for Combat.'

'I was invited to the GMB needs analysis workshop in 2009 and when the project was started a few of us took on tasks. I did most of the book-work. Then Jorge was looking for a local co-ordinator and the management committee selected me. When I first started it seemed like any other workshop but now it's become more of a personal commitment to make sure every person passes. When I listen to the stories of the workers who didn't get any schooling it makes me very determined to give them all the help I can - even if it means staying up till 4am. It also made me want to learn more and read up so that when the stewards come to me with questions I should be able to give them answers. I'm trying now to make sure we achieve the objectives of the project. My personal objectives are:

Make sure every student passes

Learn the whole course myself

Be able to step in when the tutor is missing

'It was difficult in the beginning - now I understand more and feel more confident. I have improved my skills of co-ordinating and my teaching skills. I understand the workers more and communicate better, so I can translate for the tutors. If I don't continue as co-ordinator I would still like to teach and explain things to members.'

Jenny Webber

GMB

February 2011