Georgetown: The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) was Friday informed by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) that it approved certain pay increases to the sugar workers.
In a statement, GAWU said that the Union was invited to the meeting one day after a large number of workers together with Union officials took part in a picketing exercise outside of the President’s office on Tuesday.
“While our Union, at this time, will refrain from disclosing the details as the GAWU and the workers are actively considering the company’s offer, at the same time, it demonstrates that it is only through struggle that the workers and the oppressed will be able to surmount their obstacles and score, even meagre gains from the Administration,” the Union noted.
GAWU added: “It has been a continuous struggle that has been waged since 2015 and one that saw workers, on many occasions, taking part in protest and picketing exercises outside of the sugar estates, the GuySuCo Head Office, the President’s office and the National Assembly along with those struggles workers as well as staged vigil activities to call attention to their plight and thousands of them also subscribed to a petition calling on President Granger to intervene positively in the matter. These are among the spirited activities that the sugar workers participated in and led as they sought to bring attention to their plight.”
The Union said that workers were “staunch” in their demand for a pay increase as they maintained that they were discriminated against. Apart from that, the workers further demonstrated how the pay freeze had pushed them and their families closer to the poverty line as they were crushed by the heavy cost-of-living. They had to find innovative means to make life’s ends meet as their nominal and real wages declined and their ever scarce dollars were not going as far as they previously could.
GAWU said that the offer comes less than a month away from when the workers and their families are expected to exercise their franchise, and when there are active attempts to woo their support after what they described as “years of assault after assault perpetuated against them”.
“While this does appear suspect, it nevertheless demonstrates too the principled-ness of the workers’ actions to be treated fairly and equitably and to live lives where they can afford the basic necessities of existence,” GAWU noted.
Last Tuesday, with chants of “Wage increase, no money, no work”, sugar workers from Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt estates, gathered outside of the Ministry of the Presidency, Vlissengen Road, to express their dismay on how they are being treated.
Some of the placards read: “Government shifting blame, end wage freeze now”, “Why the coalition discriminating”, “Mr. Granger what happened to our petition”, and “2014 wages with 2020 prices can’t work.”
Speaking to reporters, Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), General-Secretary, Seepaul Narine, expressed his disappointment with how the sugar workers are being treated.
He explained that the sugar workers remained the only group of workers under the State to have not gotten any improvement in pay since the current government took office in May, 2015.
“Though there are several credible and rational bases for the Granger Government to assist the workers, the APNU+AFC has turned their backs and closed their eyes and ears to the cries and calls of the nation’s sugar workers,” he said.
He said the workers cannot comprehend why they are being treated as outcasts seemingly undeserving of the protection of the State, which is their ultimate employer.
“With no pay improvements, coupled with disregarding of long-standing benefits have caused the workers’ lot to steadily deteriorate. Also, there is the additional problem of reduced cropping weeks which have further affected their earnings,” the GAWU general-secretary said.
He continued: “This painful reality could not have come at a worse time as today when the cost-of-living rose astronomically. The Bureau of Statistics, advises, that the cost of food rose by nearly 18 per cent between December 2015 and October, 2019.”
Added to that situation, he said was a heavy hike in water rates with fixed-charge customer’s tariffs increasing from $742 per month to $1,950.
“That is a 163 per cent jump. During the intervening period too, the cost of public transportation has risen by as much as 25 per cent in some cases. These have all added up and have pushed sugar workers and their families into a woeful economic plight in recent years,” Narine said.
He said efforts of sugar workers have not translated into the expected success as the industry’s factories are hamstrung and monies available for rehabilitation are held back by the procrastination of the administration.
Narine said GAWU being aware of what is occurring at this time must admit that it has little hope for improved performance in the upcoming crop.
“The union and the workers have heard President Granger saying on the campaign trail his government wants the sugar industry to be profitable. That too is a desire of the workers. But such goals cannot be realised without a motivated and committed workforce,” Narine noted.
He said fairness, equity and justice are needed in the industry.
