| The Guyana bauxite mining operations of Russian aluminium giant Rusal is still stalled after workers downed tools to protest a new wages agreement.The Union representing workers at the Aroaima bauxite site, some 65 miles south of the capital Georgetown, said that they would not accept Rusal’s demand that they sanction the shedding of 75 jobs to pay a 10 percent increase in salary.On Tuesday, the Chief Labour Officer Yoganand Persaud met with the Union and Bauxite Company, but there was no agreement to resume work.The Union claimed that they would not negotiate while the workers are on strike, but the Union said it would return to work if the Union revoked suspension letters it issued to some of the employees.The strike enters its fifth day today.“The company has not been negotiating in good faith; they are wasting our time,Cheap China Jerseys,” Charles Sampson,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, the President of the Guyana Bauxite Workers Union said.Dow Jones Newswire quoted the company as saying that the actions by certain employees and unions “are in violation of the collective labour agreement and labour discipline [and are] aimed at destabilizing the situation among the company’s staff.” However,China Adidas Hockey Jerseys, Rusal in a press statement quoted by the Down Jones Newswire said they “are in a constructive dialogue with the unions and employees as well as the state authorities and plan to reach the final agreement soon.”The government,Cheap Jerseys, Monday evening, decided to send its chief labour officer Yoganand Persaud to the work site to try and broker an agreement.Officials of the company’s Georgetown or Aroaima site could not be reached for comment and have issued no statements on the dispute.Guyana is the fifth largest world exporter of bauxite after Australia, Jamaica,Wholesale China Jerseys, Guinea and Suriname. The largest volume of bauxite is produced at the Aroaima mine managed by Rusal under its local subsidiary Bauxite Company Guyana Incorporated.Rusal took over operations at Aroaima, in the country’s main mining district of Linden, located some 65 miles from the capital Georgetown.Rusal, which bought over the Aroaima operations from government in 2004,Cheap Jerseys, said the Guyana operations helpmeet its self-sufficiency in raw materials.According to an assessment done by the company in 2004, the aggregate reserves of these deposits may amount to over 100 million tonnes of bauxite, which is sufficient for providing raw material to the refinery with a capacity of 1.4 million tonnes of alumina per year for over 25 years.The company is conducting the feasibility study for the constructing of a refinery in the Linden district.This is the second strike to hit the company this year. In May, workers were on strike for three days, and the company is currently suing Union leaders for that strike, saying production lost amounted to US$300,000. |
