GAWU calls strike at Demerara Timbers

Kaieteur News

GAWU calls strike at Demerara Timbers

Some 150 workers at the Demerara Timbers Limited's Mabura Hill branch went on strike yesterday to demand that the company pay them money owed since last year. The workers are represented by the Guyana Agricultural and General Worker's Union (GAWU).

GAWU's General Secretary, Seepaul Narine, has accused GTL of failing to pay in full, the 5.5 percent increase that the firm had agreed to give its staff in 2006, following negotiations with the union.

In a letter from the GAWU General Secretary to the Demerara Timbers Limited management, Narine stated, “To date, the workers are yet to receive their retroactive payment for the period January 1, 2007 to August 03, 2007, and retro payment for overtime work done in 2005.

“The workers at your Mabura branch are becoming restive, while your company continues to ignore the company's representation to have the agreement reached between the parties fully implemented.

“We wish to request that the workers be paid forthwith all their outstanding payments and you meet with the union to address the union's claims for 2007,” the letter, dated October 2, 2007 concluded.

Narine told Kaieteur News that Chief Labour Officer in the Ministry of Labour, Mohamed Akeel, was attempting to meet with the management and workers. Efforts by Kaieteur News to contact officials at DTL were unsuccessful