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On Monday 16th June 2014, Guyanese once again observed the anniversary of the martyrdom of five (5) heroic sugar workers who sacrificed their lives in order that Guyanese workers, in general, and sugar workers, in particular, could enjoy better conditions of work from their employers. On this occasion, the People’s National Congress Reform joined the rest of the nation in remembering Lallabajee, Pooran, Harry (Jug), Surujbally and Rambarran.
The struggle of the sugar workers and the commemoration of the Enmore Martyrs has become a national occasion to rally and inspire. Regrettably, sixty six (66) years after their death, and thirty seven (37) years after the People’s National Congress Government erected a monument to their memory at Enmore on the East Coast of Demerara, sugar workers are still being used, as convenient political allies, by the PPP.
On this 66th anniversary, however, the workers of this important industry are showing signs of resistance and asserting their independence from the clutches of the increasingly arrogant and insensitive PPP/C Government. Meanwhile, the rights of all workers continue to remain under threat and the political environment hostile to the maintenance of the independence and full development of workers and their unions.
The struggle for a living wage by public sector workers; the overt and covert efforts to destroy the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC); the virtual abolition of collective bargaining in the public sector; and the shameless failure to protect worker’s rights and interests in the bauxite industry by the Minister of Labour are, but, a few examples of the arrogance, insensitivity and brazen attacks on the trade union movement by the PPP/C Administration.
On this 66th anniversary of the Enmore Martyrs, the PNCR re-dedicates itself to the continued struggle for workers rights, a living wage and better working conditions for all workers in Guyana.
