– hundreds of workers who would be affected join the demonstration.
“THEY (the Opposition) keep complaining that we (government) are paying peanuts to workers. Why do they want to take the peanuts from them now? Our workers do not deserve this. They have this country where it is today, and we are going to stand by them,” Public Service Minister, Dr. Jennifer Westford, remarked yesterday.
Hundreds of workers from three government ministries (Housing and Water; Tourism, Industry and Commerce; and Culture, Youth and Sport) yesterday turned up in protest in downtown Brickdam, a short distance away from Public Buildings (Parliament), to voice their concerns over the recent move by the Alliance for Change (AFC) to cut allocations to these ministries; a move that would see them losing their jobs.
Several ministers of the government protested in solidarity with the workers, venting their anger at the move by the AFC while simultaneously calling on their parliamentary colleagues in ‘A Partnership for National Unity’ (APNU) not to support the AFC proposal.
Below are some of the points raised by the ministers:
** DR. JENNIFER WESTFORD, MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE
“As the Minister of Public Service, let me say that we are going to be vigilant, and no one will lose their job. The AFC, APNU, none of the opposition members will make these workers out here lose their job.
“These people, over the years, have been contending that contracted workers are getting multi-million dollars. It’s not so. Contracted workers are public servants who opted to be contracted workers. They get the same benefits as the pensionable workers, so it’s a lie.
“I heard (APNU parliamentarian) Basil Williams said that all of the contracted workers are PPP hacks. We don’t look at politics, or race, or religion when we employ persons. These people are all professionals in their own right, and they deserve to be employed.
“If it means that I have to stand here every day, I will stand here every day. We have a total of 6,000 contracted workers that will be affected, and their families. There is going to be a big spin off.”
** IRFAAN ALI, MINISTER OF HOUSING AND WATER
“The whole objective (of the protest) is to stand up strong together; stand up united to send a strong message that this is not about politics, it’s about the lives of people. And we hope that APNU would not support this AFC amendment, and would let good sense prevail.
“Another proposal that the AFC has is to cut housing by $1B. What this means is that no infrastructural development work would be able to continue. This would affect 6,500 households.
The upgrading of infrastructure would be denied to more than 13,000 households in housing schemes, and 200 households in squatting areas.
There will be no development in Berbice, Linden and Bartica. No new house lots will be developed to satisfy the current demand of 20,000.
“All (that) these workers are saying is: ‘If you have something against the government, don’t punish the workers’. What sense went into that amendment that Mr. Ramjattan brought?
We want our fellow colleagues in the APNU to understand the implications of the actions of Ramjattan and the AFC and not to allow this amendment to pass today.”
*** PRIYA MANICKCHAND, MINISTER OF EDUCATION
“The staff (at the Education Ministry) out here are terrified that this is going to be them tomorrow. We got hundreds of calls this morning from people trying to find out what is happening. The officers cried as I was explaining it.
“This is more than being spiteful; it’s more than being malicious. Cutting jobs, punishing the workers is not punishing the government. In addition to cutting staff, you’re shutting down entire sections of the government.
“We’re asking the AFC to have a heart. Have a heart! How is Guyana going to develop? Who’s going to put our children in school? Who is going to mark their exam papers? Who is going to set their exam papers?
“I’m calling on Ramjattan to have a heart. Is he going to pay these people’s rent at the end of the month? Is Moses Nagamootoo going to put food in these children’s mouths? Cathy Hughes, have a heart!
“And then you stand in Parliament and [speak] on how much you love people. The PPP/C government will stand behind these workers to the end. This sort of irrationality, this sort of madness…
“The Speaker of the National Assembly hosted a meeting last night (Tuesday night) with all the parties, and I heard from my party that the AFC refused to withdraw this motion. I know APNU must have better sense than this.
“This is AFC madness. This is AFC being heartless.”
**** ROBESON BENN, MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS AND HYDRAULICS
“All along, we have been warning the Guyanese public of what the interest of these people are who want to come to power and derail the progress, prosperity and the sustainability through hard work.
“This is an assault on Guyanese workers. It’s an affront and discredit to the Parliament. It is only designed to come to power by sowing confusion, by having us at each other’s throats, and by creating a situation where we will revert to great trouble and problems in our country.
“These proposals are designed to bring the country to a standstill. There’s no sustainability in anything they propose. It will result in working people being pulled out of jobs. It’s to get power at any means and any cost.
“They only want to bring destruction and confusion so that their egos could be fulfilled at the seat of government. Now we know which is the working class party all along, and who wants to destroy the working class.”
*** DR. BHERI RAMSARAN, MINISTER OF HEALTH
“An attack on the Housing Ministry is an attack on the health of the working people. Recently, WHO (World Health Organisation) put out a report which said several tens of thousands of kids die daily because of diarrhoeal diseases linked to water-borne germs.
“Therefore, we are out here in solidarity with the ministries, because this is an assault on the health of the working people.
“Right now, in this country, we have a very significant tourism event, whereby all of the people across the region are recognizing that Guyana was the best kept secret in tourism, and now we’re unleashing it; and this is aimed at undermining that. It means it undermines jobs for people in the service industry.
“This is an anti-working class motion by Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan. Anti-national, anti-working class because it’s taking away workers’ salaries and bread from their plates, regardless if they are contracted or not.
“The benefits of these workers should not be undermined to get at the government.”
Source: https://guyanachronicle.com/2012/04/19/ministers-flay-afc-budget-cut-proposals-in-downtown-solidarity-protest