GLU set to represent Bai Shan Lin workers

GLU set to represent Bai Shan Lin workers
Kaieteur News, 22 December 2007
The Guyana Labour Union (GLU) has received the unanimous support of
employees of one of the country's biggest logging firms, Bai Shan Lin.

During a recently conducted poll at the Bai Shan Lin International
Forest Development Inc. at Linden , 95 per cent of the staffers there
indicated that they wanted the union to represent their labour
interests.

The Guyana Mine, Metal and General Workers Union (GMM &GWU) would be
representing the remaining five per cent.

GLU, yesterday, confirmed that the Ministry of Labour has since
declared it the winner of the polls and that the stage has now been
cleared for the signing of a Recognition Agreement between the union
and Bai Shan Lin.

The logging company has around 500 employees.

Recently, GLU also went to uncharted territory gaining a significant
foothold in the timber industry after being given the nod from workers
at Toolsie Persaud Limited Sawmills and Lumber Yard.

During a survey by the Ministry of Labour at Toolsie, some 130 workers
expressed interest in being represented by the union.

GLU said that it was issued with a letter from the Trade Union
Recognition and Certification Board of the Ministry, which informed it
that it is now the majority union after a survey at the sawmill and
lumberyard.

“That makes this union one of the most recognised unions in the timber
industry,” said GLU General Secretary Carvil Duncan yesterday.

GLU is the oldest but second largest union in Guyana , after the Guyana
Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), which has more than
10,000 members.