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East Demerara cane cutters down tools
Some of the striking cane cutters speaking to the media yesterday.
Cane cutters attached to the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s East Demerara estates are refusing to work in protest of what they called the arbitrary reduction of their agreed pay.
The workers who are mainly from the Enterprise area are claiming that the General Manager of the East Demerara Estates is undervaluing their labour, since he slashed the sum agreed to for the cutting of over 100 punts of sugar cane to an ‘unreasonable figure’.
The strike commenced on Friday last, and yesterday, while the workers remained off the job, their union, the Guyana Agricultural & General Workers Union (GAWU) and the sugar company were locked in discussions to resolve the matter.
Should the matter remain unresolved by weekend, the situation could have dire consequences for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) which is already facing significant losses.
Already the company has been reeling from the low turnout of cane cutters and it has had to resort to advertising for workers to cut the cane for the final crop of the year.
Yesterday, several cane cutters assembled in the village of Enterprise and expressed disgust at the way they are being treated by the management of GuySuCo.
One of the striking workers explained that the fields require clearing of grass and vines before the cane could be harvested and this places additional burden on the cane cutters, especially given the adverse weather being currently experienced.
Kaieteur News understands that the union was called in after the workers made two futile attempts to reach an agreement with the GuySuCo management over the weekend.
GAWU’s Field Secretary for the Enmore Estate, who gave his name as Razack, told this newspaper that normally, prior to the cutting of the sugar cane, the workers would inspect the fields and would agree on a price, depending on the amount of work to be done.
According to the official, the condition of the field requires additional work for the cane cutters and although an agreed price was reached, officials of the sugar company arbitrarily reduced the figure.
“In my opinion the workers deserve more than what the manager is offering,” Razack said.
He disclosed that the matter was reported to the Central Executive of GAWU and the union is desperately trying to resolve the matter with GuySuCo.
Presently, an estimated 300 cane cutters, primarily from the Enterprise gang are refusing to work until the matter is resolved, and the longer the sugar cane is left uncut, the deterioration would result in a drop in the production of sugar.
The employee said that he has been cutting cane for 25 years and has never encountered a situation like this before.
“Dem ah talk how we must cooperate and dem nah do nothing fuh de workers. When workers strike dem gat all kinda thing fuh tell you. This is slavery coming back in the sugar industry,” the cane cutter declared.
He believes that something is definitely wrong in the sugar industry, since according to him, the grinding period for this the last crop, has been significantly reduced.
“Everyday dem ah beg fuh people fuh cut de cane. Let dem Minister come and me go gi dem cutlass. This wuk can’t do with pen and paper, buddy,” another sugar worker protested.
The cane cutters said that if the matter is not resolved soon, they will call upon the other gangs to support them.
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