Remarking on the recent occasion, he said:“We don’t have to use May Day as an event to ‘cuss’ each other out. But that is what it turns out into, a ‘cussing’ out.

“I do not know if they do it just to say to their members they are militant, because we (Government) had a good engagement with the Trades Union Congress (TUC),” the Head of State told television ‘Prime News’ Editor-in-Chief, Mr Adam Harris, at State House Sunday.

Mr Jagdeo said Government and the TUC Executive have met at the Office of the President on several occasions over the years and discussed a number of positive issues.

“But then it ends up always as a siege which contradicts the tenor of the discussion that Government has had with the TUC.

“And I cannot accept that. I think that, if you are building confidence, your behaviour must be consistent and then the TUC, in some cases, becomes so partisan as to start taking political views.

“They choose sides. They are breaking up the trade union movement, because of their political position,” President Jagdeo charged.

According to him, the TUC’s actions are evident of its status.

“I can understand individual unions taking sides, although that is wrong. But individual unions have a right. But, when the umbrella body starts taking political positions, then they break up the trade union movement and it is in bad shape right now, without three of the largest members,” he maintained.

The Government Information Agency (GINA), reporting on the interview, said Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) have all left the TUC for various reasons.

NAACIE and GAWU had cited non-implementation of some key measures by the TUC Executive to democratise the larger grouping and GPSU left about a year ago, GINA said.

About his attendance at the May Day rally hosted by GAWU, a union perceived to be pro-People’s Progressive Party and not the traditional TUC gathering, President Jagdeo said he was invited to several places and went to all.

However, due to the political image portrayed by the TUC, he did not associate himself with it.

“I have not normally gone to the traditional parade, so it is not anything new this year. In previous years, I went to different places that extended invitations to me. This year, I went to the GNIC (Guyana National Industrial Company Inc), Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union and to GAWU, because they invited me,” Mr Jagdeo confirmed.

GINA said May Day is celebrated in Guyana on May 1 every year, to commemorate Labour Day and mark the advent of adult suffrage in Guyana and the struggles of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, regarded as the father of trade unionism in this country.