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Sugar hauteur

Dec 11, 2009 Editorial

The other foot has finally dropped in the sugar industry wage dispute: according to the Arbitration Panel, the workers will receive a 3% increase for 2009.
The cumulative wages outstanding, however, will not be paid until March of next year – and not this year as has been the custom. This practice used to give the long-suffering workers a much needed boost in the Christmas season when it was added to their Annual Production Incentive bonuses. With the dismal production record of the corporation, workers are wondering what the API will be this year.
The 3% addition to the workers’ 2009 wages is not a real increase in economic terms. Money, we have pointed out repeatedly, is not just a number – the number has meaning only in relation to what it can purchase. The projected 3.5% inflation announced for 2009 (and this might actually be higher) will more than wipe the supposed “increase” when the workers hit the markets and shops next March.
All of this does not bode well for the turnaround of the industry that has been promised by management in the recently crafted Sugar Blueprint.
We can confidently predict that there will be a significant number of sugar workers who will not be turning out to work next year. Sugar production is a seasonal operation – note that the new Skeldon factory is scheduled to run only 25 weeks annually – and if workers cannot accumulate a substantial surplus during the grinding season they are reduced to penury afterwards. Forget the “guaranteed” four-day out-of-crop work that is offered – the conditions are so draconian that it only serve to further demotivate workers.
We were thus taken aback when GuySuCo’s CEO took umbrage at the question as to whether management will be taking pay cuts in the present climate where sacrifices were being demanded from ordinary workers. Whether the CEO admits it or not, as the President has noted, the present sorry state of the corporation is a direct consequence of management failure.
If, as the CEO declared, GuySuCo needs “competent” managers and they must be appropriately compensated to be retained, is that not also true for the ordinary workers? The CEO’s outburst betrays a mindset that does not augur well for the recovery of an industry that depends ultimately on the increased productivity from its field operations.
Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir’s comment that the rest of Guyana is affected because of the $2.5 billion in taxes that GuySuCo owes the Government, was also uncalled for. His remark that the money could have been used to pay public servants’ salary increases was also in poor taste and even inflammatory.
He, and all those who begrudge sugar workers a decent wage, have obviously forgotten about the sugar levy imposed in 1974. Billions of dollars (it would be trillions at today’s exchange rates) were squeezed from the industry even as the sugar workers were bled to death.
The monies were siphoned into the treasury, supposedly to develop the rest of the economy. Even after the PPP was returned to office they retained the levy for many years, because they pointed to the negative impact it would have on the economy – including public servants’ salaries.
In addition to the sugar levy there were billions accumulated in the sugar stabilisation and factory rehabilitation funds. Those that criticise the Skeldon expansion should take note.
At this time of hardship for the sugar industry – not brought on by workers – maybe the government ought to create a development fund for the sugar industry to the tune of the monies unconscionably extracted through fiat. As we have pointed out before, the field operations must first be stabilised – and this depends on workers’ enthusiasm as much as mechanisation. Corruption in GuySuCo – organised and operated by management – is a cancer that must be eradicated.
Finally, whether belated or not, the government has offered GAWU positions on the Board of Directors. This offer must be taken up at once so that workers can have more direct influence on policy – not to mention the manoeuvrings of management.

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