Deafening silence…

…from GPSU on contract workers

For years and years, Patrick Yarde – President for life of the GPSU – has been jumping up and down about the hordes of “contract workers” the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government hired to perform jobs that Public Service workers were supposed to do. Cynics said it was because the Union dues to cover his salary and perks were reduced that Yarde was upset. Not to mention undermining his ability to blackmail the PPP/Civic through strike action.

But last year, in his impassioned testimony to the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) President David Granger instituted to examine the terms and conditions of public service work, Yarde called for the TOTAL elimination of contract workers. And it had nothing to do with his influence or his salary or his perks or such crass matters. He was thinking totally about the WELFARE OF THE CONTRACT WORKERS!!!

That’s right… Yarde said while contract workers may get three or four times the salaries of regular public service workers, they didn’t have “security of tenure”. And this made them “vulnerable to pressure” from the political directorate to do “wrong things”. And as a patriot and a man concerned about the welfare of the working class – no matter how well-heeled they were – he had to stand up for what is “right”. Which is to get rid of an iniquitous system that made men and women do “wrong things” just because of filthy lucre.

Your Eyewitness is a sucker for patriotism and sacrifice and you, dear reader, should guess how touched he was at Yarde’s peroration in front of the CoI. And that’s why he’s kinda confused why this defender of the dignity of the working class hasn’t uttered even a squeak now it’s been revealed that CONTRACT WORKERS HAVE SKYROCKETED UNDER THIS GOVERNMENT!!

Imagine that! As Yarde explained, it’s not just about the money – it’s that so many other innocents have been placed in a position where they’ll be forced to do “wrong things”. While your Eyewitness has led quite a sheltered life, he’s heard hints of some of these “wrong things”. His mind boggles that Yarde hasn’t led his in front of Parliament Buildings waving pitchforks. Or even their pens – which are supposed to be mightier than swords.

The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government spokespersons aver as to how they’ll be “integrating” the contract workers gradually into the regular public service. But is that a good idea? After all, with all the “bad things” they’ve had to do to earn those super salaries (as high as Gy$1 million/month!!) won’t they corrupt those paragons of virtue (albeit low paid) who fork out their union dues to Yarde and Co?

…to strident criticisms?

Folks were beginning to worry whether the Agriculture Ministry (MOA) had closed up shop. What with declaring that rice “wasn’t their business” and claiming not to know whether it was the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) or the Cabinet that had closed down Wales Estate, the concerns weren’t exactly unfounded.

But suddenly we’ve heard some noises indicating that perchance sprouts might have still survived through the MOA’s months of hibernation.

But sadly the noises were only criticisms of proposals and information which concerned citizens had come up with, in an effort to address the concerns of the workers of Wales. The MOA claimed the proposed severance package a past official of GuySuCo mentioned was “too high”. But didn’t offer any figures of its own. It also said the plan by a former Chairman of GuySuCo to form a public company from the Wales assets, weren’t viable.

Without mentioning its own plans that are supposed to be released in October.

The workers should presumably “trust” the MOA and buy their “pig in poke”!

…on AUDITS

Once again, Jailall Sharma has said nothing about the dozens of audits (already paid for) to find money that either “siphoned off” or “hidden” by the PPP/C.

But once again, Jailall has promised to “jail them”. Without the evidence, Jail-all?