Thursday, May 1, 2008, Guyanese workers celebrated another Labour Day with the usual march and rallies. However, May Day 2008 saw a deeper split in labour when the two labour umbrella bodies, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Guyana (FITUG) went separate ways. Although starting off the march in unison, the two factions parted company at a certain point, and held separate rallies for the workers under their respective umbrellas.

The entire Guyanese population had expected that this time around, the two umbrella trade union bodies which cradle all the country’s unionized workers, would have worked out their differences and once again march and rally around one Labour Body, at least in the interest of working class unity.

While the Guyana Trades Union Congress has in its fold the Guyana Public Service Union (PSWU), the Guyana Workers’ Union (GWU), the United Minibus Union and the Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Union (GPTU), the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana is “mother” to the very powerful Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) - the single largest union in Guyana (if not the Caribbean), the Clerical and Commercial Workers’ Union (CCWU), the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE), and the Guyana Labour Union (GLU), founded by the Father of Trade Unionism in Guyana, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow. The majority of Guyanese workers are represented by the unions in the FITUG grouping.

Guyanese were expecting to see Labour Day 2008 as the day when all the country’s workers would have marched under a single labour umbrella. They feel that with the show of support for FITUG at Thursday’s march and rally, that body should make moves to have its presence felt at the level of the Trades Union Congress.

It is time for labour to come together so that as Guyanese we could fight the scourge of hunger, high prices and food shortages which pervade the world today. The government has done a lot in efforts to ease the burden on the people and has pointed the way forward for mainstream society to follow and contribute towards making Guyana a better place for all.

Let us all be reminded of what the late President of Guyana, Dr. Cheddi Jagan said in his booklet Rooting for Labour: “…the way forward will be as we want it to be - closer identity between a legitimate government and a credible Trade Union Movement to inscribe the rights of the working class to a greater share of the wealth it creates: or it can be filled with endless intrigues and intransigence to delay the dawning of the new day”.

The people believe that now, more than ever, the time has come for all the workers’ unions in this country to be represented by one powerful Trade Union Movement which will have both people and country at heart.

Failing to do so, we will be doing a disservice to people in the likes of the late Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, Joseph Pollydore, and former President Dr Cheddi Jagan and others who fought selflessly in difficult times and against all odds for the working class of this country.

They paved the way. Let us as one people concretize our dream and together make Guyana the type of place they would have wanted it to be for our sake and the sake of our children, and our children’s children.