THE strike by workers of the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) has begun to take its toll as both consumers and schoolchildren are reeling under the darkness of frequent power failures.

The workers’ withdrawal of services, which is just under a week old, if allowed to prolong, would cause serious harm to the local economy and considerable losses to consumers, including the business community.

While we agree that certain categories of GPL workers deserve more pay, we also recognise that each day the strike drags on, increased suffering is passed on to consumers, who face tremendous difficulties.

Most Guyanese believe that the GPL is generating enough income to grant increased wages and salaries to these categories of workers.

Many people are of the view that consumers are called upon to pay huge bills for electricity, and many believe that while most of the company’s finances are channelled to upkeep exorbitant salaries to the management structure, workers at the bottom are neglected and receive miserly sums in wages and salaries.

Most people sympathise with the workers in their demand for more pay, but they do not subscribe to the prolonging of strike action.

This will not do our country well; it will not do our people any good.

The services provided by the GPL stretch almost right across the coastline, and consumers from top to bottom are affected in one way or the other by the strike.

Businessmen, both big and small, especially those who deal in fish, chicken, pork, beef, wild meats and other perishables, suffer daily losses because these people depend on uninterrupted supply of electricity to refrigerate their stocks, which are required to be stored in cold storage.

Consumers at home also suffer losses when their meats, fish, shrimp and other perishables spoil because of constant and more prolonged blackouts, especially since the strike started.

Schools have just re-opened for the Christmas term, and the daily power cuts in several areas affect our schoolchildren, who are prevented from doing their homework, assignments and other projects.

We feel that strikers should exercise at least some pity on our children and even their own children whose studies might be affected, and allow the dialogue process to work.

We feel that power outages caused by prolonging the strike would also lead to other companies, especially the manufacturing sector, sending home workers because of their inability to operate at full capacity.

The power outages also have a direct effect on the supply of potable water. Most of the pumps on the coastland installed by the Guyana Water Authority (GUYWA) depend on power from the GPL, and whenever there is a blackout there, is also no water, resulting in hardships to consumers.

Most people believe that consumers are the ones who face the brunt of the strike action, and this should not be so.

We join with others in calling on the striking GPL workers to return to work and allow the parties concerned to enter into dialogue and negotiations that would lead to an amicable solution.