The call by the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) to have the rank and file of the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown engage strike action from today was yesterday regarded as “not an ordinary industrial matter” by City Mayor Hamilton Green.The Mayor’s expressed this opinion during a press conference at City Hall.According to the Mayor he was forced to make the point during a meeting which saw the attendance of delegates of the municipality and the union.The meeting was hosted by the Chief Labour Officer yesterday, the Mayor disclosed.“There was no dispute between the workers and the municipality…a dispute in the sense that there is money to be paid and the council is unwilling to pay. The position as we pointed out on many occasions is that the Council is without the resources to pay workers and I feel very sad and sorry for the workers, particularly at a time when school is reopening,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, and we have so far been unable to pay the workers.”During yesterday’s meeting, Mayor Green related that it was very strange that General Secretary of the GLU, Carvil Duncan, did not believe that the issue of those who owe taxes was relevant or that it was an issue of concern to them.“This is an amazing, unbelievable position because the municipality is not a business that sells liquor or machinery and generates money overtime; we rely almost entirely on taxes from our property owners.”According to the City Mayor,Wholesale NFL China Jerseys, although the Government is in fact one of the largest property owners in Georgetown, it seems unwilling to satisfy the financial obligation it has with the municipality. This development, the Mayor is convinced, has set the tone for other tax payers who have also neglected to pay their taxes.“If the Government sets a bad example in a small society like ours it will not be surprising that others are delinquent and feel it is unimportant.”For regular properties, the Mayor revealed that Government owed some $92M but for some reason had only opted to pay a total of $40M and had even sent an order to dictate how that money should be expended.The Chief Citizen said that up to yesterday morning, the municipality was yet unable to extract from the Government the sum of $52M which the government still owes.Even considering this state of affairs, the Mayor said that he is appalled that the union leaders are still of the opinion that the failure on the part of government and other property owners to not pay up is not very important.“This is not a matter that they want to discuss…It is unbelievable that an organisation like ours that depends on rates and taxes… that you can have a union so irresponsible, so obtuse and so bias as if this is not their concern.”In addition, Green said that there are hundreds of millions of dollars due to the municipality from properties disposed of by the state for which they have not yet settled. These outstanding taxes, the Mayor said, are in fact a worrying situation.However,Jerseys From China, he is of the belief that the development is hinged on a much bigger issue.“In 1994 when we had Local Government elections for the city,NCAA Hockey Jerseys, the citizens rejected the Government party and the PPP got eight out of 30 seats and the question one can hardly avoid getting is that the government is on the royal road to punish the citizens for voting elsewhere and giving 22 seats to the opposition.”“I suppose that is the new level of democratic governance that we have reached.”According to the City Mayor it became clear that the decision by union,Arizona Diamondbacks Gregor Blanco Jersey, coupled with that being taken by government is nothing less than personal, as well as political. Nonetheless, Green asserted that he is unafraid to deal with the matters arising head-on.The GLU in a letter to the municipality has instructed its workers, amounting to some 700, to engage strike action for non-payment on the part of the municipality. The Mayor confirmed that the union in a letter had proposed strike action which commenced on a small scale yesterday.“Mr Duncan in one of his asseverations repeated, like the parrot, what the master said, that the problem is the Mayor; the persona of the Mayor. I believe he is right because I am unprepared to yield to those who seem interested in hegemony and complete control, inconsistent with the modern method of local government and shared governance.”In a letter to the Acting Town Clerk, Yonette Pluck-Cort, Duncan expressed disappointment that the council is deliberately causing hardship on the workers by not paying them at the time agreed.The threat of strike action, according to Green,Cheap Jerseys Online, seems to have been compounded by a possible sabotage which was characterised by a loss of brush cutters at the Stone Depot yesterday. |