From Struggle to Strength: PPP notes labour achievements since return to office

PPP Labour Day 2025 Message

Today, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) stands proudly with the working people of Guyana in commemorating Labour Day 2025 — a day honouring the courage, resilience, and sacrifices of the working class, whose collective strength continues to build our nation and shape our future.

Labour Day is more than a celebration. It is a reminder of the struggles waged, the victories won, and the work still to be done in advancing justice, fair wages, equal opportunities, and improved working conditions.

It is also a time for critical reflection — to assess how far we have come and to ensure that the rights and dignity of our workers remain central to national development.

When analysing progress on Labour Day, it is important to make the right comparisons — to examine how labour relations, working conditions, and opportunities have improved. By every measure, Guyana’s working people have made enormous progress over the past four and a half years under the PPP/C Government.

Since its founding, the PPP has walked shoulder to shoulder with Guyana’s workers. From Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s vision to the present, our Party has consistently fought for the empowerment, dignity, and well-being of the working class. That proud legacy continues.

Since returning to office in August 2020, your PPP/C Government has remained faithful to its promises, delivering tangible, life-changing benefits to working families across this country:

• Over 60,000 Guyanese who were not employed when we took office in 2020 are now working.
• More than 50,000 persons have received government-funded training and scholarships, preparing them for modern, in-demand careers.
• Thousands of teachers have received training through the Cyril Potter College and the GOAL Scholarship Programme, and an additional 3,000 new teachers have been hired.
• We restored collective bargaining as a principle of good labour relations, signing multi-year agreements with GPSU, GTU, and GAWU.
• We increased the tax threshold and provided tax relief for overtime work and those who work a second job, directly improving the disposable income of working families.
• We delivered one-off relief payments to thousands of workers previously denied NIS benefits, and to contributors who fell short of the qualifying threshold, correcting decades of neglect.

We have complemented these efforts by distributing thousands of house lots, reversing burdensome taxes imposed by the previous administration, and generating thousands of sustainable jobs across sectors like construction, health, education, technology, energy, manufacturing, and agriculture.

Labour Day should always be used to celebrate, track progress, and ask critical questions about whether life has improved for our workers and whether the country is moving in the right direction. In today’s Guyana, the answer is a resounding yes.

Labour Day 2025 finds our nation on an upward path — one where working families feel the benefits of our country’s growth, and new opportunities are opening daily. Every new school, every new road, every job created, and every policy implemented is a testament to our commitment to placing the welfare of our working people at the heart of development.

As we honour the contributions of our workers today, we reaffirm this Government’s unwavering commitment to fairness, equity, and dignity in the workplace.

The PPP/C will continue to champion policies that ensure the benefits of national development are shared by all Guyanese, with no one left behind.

Let us move forward, united in solidarity and purpose, knowing that together, we will build a nation defined by hope, opportunity, and prosperity for all.