The Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU), the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) and the Guyana Mine, Metal and General Workers Union (GMM&GWU) announced on Tuesday the federation’s reactivation.

Efforts to reach Chairman of the Interim Management Committee (IMC), Grantley Culbard proved unsuccessful yesterday. He was said to be overseas.

Likewise, efforts to contact GTUC President, Carvil Duncan, also proved unsuccessful as was the case with General Secretary, Lincoln Lewis who was not available for comment.

GAWU’s General Pres-ident Komal Chand told Stabroek News yesterday the reactivation of the body first created by seven unions in 1988 was intended to apply pressure on the GTUC to function in the best interest of the workers.

FITUG members rejoined the TUC in the 1990s after certain agreements were reached between the two sides.

According to Chand the decision to seek to reactivate the federation was based on a concept that a unified approach as opposed to individual representations would aid in bringing about the changes and unity that the movement needed.

This position was shared by CCWU’s President General, Roy Hughes who reiterated yesterday that the decision by his union to join the reconstituted group in no way meant that it had withdrawn from the GTUC.

According to Hughes, who is listed as a committee member under the reconstituted FITUG, the intention is to make the GTUC stronger and position it to take the necessary decisions for the good of the labour body.

He said the CCWU’s decision stemmed from certain actions or lack of action by the GTUC including its failure to hold any meeting of its executive council since April.

Hughes said these were supposed to be held every fortnight but the last was in April prior to the holding of the May 1 annual conference.

He did acknowledge that an executive meeting of the GTUC has been called for Monday after two months although no explanation had been given for the inactivity.

“We want them to perform better than that”, Hughes said, while planning to raise several issues at the session.

He refused to disclose the issues saying he did not want to wash the movement’s dirty linen in public.

“We want to put the fire to the TUC...to let them act”, the union executive said while highlighting that there was nothing wrong with unions, although affiliated to the TUC, forming a federation of unions within the umbrella body.

Hughes gave the example of the Federated Union of Government Employees (FUGE) which despite being an association of unions was still affiliated to the GTUC.

He said unions should be able to sit and discuss matters and arrive at a common approach in relation to matters they would like to see engaging the TUC.

One of the issues to surface as a result of there being no GTUC executive meetings was the determination of progress with respect to the resolutions passed following the May 1 rally at the Critchlow Labour College.

Among the resolutions are those seeking to bring about greater unity in the movement and towards the re-admittance of GAWU, NAACIE and the Guyana Public Service Union to the umbrella body.

According to Hughes, as a member of the committee established to meet the unions outside of the umbrella body, he was at a loss to know the current stage of these efforts.

In a press release dated July 22 and signed by NAACIE President Kenneth Joseph, who is the Interim Management Committee’s secretary, the unions pledged to work unceasingly to ensure that reforms of the national trade union body take place to allow for equality and participation of every legitimate union in the country.

The IMC of the resuscitated FITUG includes Culbard as Chairman and Chand as Vice-chairman.

Other officers are Joseph as Secretary, Vernon Semple as assistant secretary, Seepaul Narine as treasurer, and Hughes, Esther Benjamin, Bhagmat Hochand and Kim Halley as committee members.

According to Chand, the body’s re-constitution is premised on dissatisfaction his union along with others have with the functioning and operation of the TUC.

Among the issues, which continue to create differences are GAWU’s questioning of the TUC’s accountability, authenticity of its membership and its willingness to address a number of concerns important to GAWU and NAACIE, two of its biggest affiliates.