Grim times again for sugar workers

Nov 22, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The sugar workers are going to get the wrong end of the stick again this year. Their union is going to fail them once again and therefore it is for the sugar workers to do what they have always done effectively: struggle to achieve their just rewards.
Sugar workers cannot rely on GAWU anymore. That union has outlived its usefulness to workers and is too close to the government to effectively represent the interests of sugar workers.
Unless this is done the situation for workers in the sugar industry will not get any better. These are grim times for sugar workers.
Sugar workers will again have a bleak Christmas since it is obvious that the official production target for GuySuCo cannot be achieved, the revised target cannot be met, and even a revision of the revised production target may be far off the mark.
Last year, the wages dispute went to arbitration and the results were not good at all for sugar workers. This year the situation looks bleaker. Production is likely to be at a dismal low and therefore workers will not enjoy an increase in salaries.
The union will make the usual noises but the workers have to understand that the union itself needs to be brought to account for the level of representation that it is making.
There are many sides to the dispute. The union claims that there are problems with the factory at Skeldon and therefore the workers are not to blame. The corporation, on the other hand, contends that production and attendance are poor and that it desires to link any increase in wages to improved production.
This theoretically sounds reasonable except that the corporation misses a few things. It is the government that was primarily responsible for the construction of the Skeldon Sugar Factory.
This factory has not been functioning as anticipated and even had problems in the pre-commissioning stages. Increased production through this factory is critical to the fortunes of the sugar industry.
The problems of the factory are technical and can be resolved but will require an injection of capital. The canes in the fields and in the punts cannot wait on repairs, however, because cane has to be ground within a specified period after reaping. The problems with the Skeldon Factory, therefore, mean that canes will be lost and it is unfair to ask the workers to suffer because of this.
However, even if the factory was working optimally, there is a problem with finding workers to cut the canes in the fields. Attendance continues to decline and this has to do with a number of factors which cannot be solely laid at the feet of workers.
Cane cutting is an arduous task. It is hard work, requiring back-breaking effort. It takes its toll on the sugar workers, many of whom are getting old and do not want cane cutting for their children.
By now the cut and loading processes should have been mechanized. But there are obviously problems in Guyana that would not allow total mechanization of this aspect of sugar farming. Greater levels of mechanization should have by now been achieved to offset falling attendance.
The turnout of field workers is a direct result of the poor conditions that they enjoy. There is mass migration away from cane cutting because of the poor pay that is received.
Many workers are also switching to other occupations such as fishing and masonry and labourers which are paying just as much and at time equal to what they would have earned in the fields.
The sugar corporation therefore faces a chicken and egg situation. On the one hand it needs more production to increase pay but the workers need more pay so as to increase production.
But then by demanding of them the achievement of unrealistic targets, even with increased pay, where will GuySuCo finds the workers to cut their own canes, considering that the corporation is also in competition with private cane farmers who are also employing workers? Some of the workers work with the industry and then work with the private cane farmers.
There is therefore a need for large pool of workers from which the corporation can obtain its labour force. However, the countryside where most of the cane farming takes place is being systematically depopulated because of the limited opportunities.
And therefore it is unreasonable for the sugar corporation to expect to have increased attendance in situations where there is an acute shortage of labour.
Instead of therefore pretending that the problem is one of workers’ commitments the sugar company and the government need to recognise that there is pervasive hopelessness in many sugar producing areas with residents seeking greener pastures both in Guyana and overseas, including immigrant labour in Suriname.
The time has come therefore for the government to fix the problem of the sugar industry- and it can be fixed- by investing in workers rather than shortchanging.

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