Sugar workers’ blues

Dec 18, 2010 Editorial

Plights, it is said, are desperate, difficult and precarious situations brought about by natural or divine causes as opposed to “problems” which are, in the end, traceable to human action – or inaction.
The point of the distinction is that the former condition generally precludes finger-pointing since it is often seen as beyond the control of man while the latter, being man-made can be rectified. What is done, can be undone.
The pitiful condition in which sugar workers have found themselves is not a plight – no Annual Production Incentive (API), no bonus and for most, no work for the next month – is a problem. It was caused solely by those that manage the sugar industry and it must be rectified by those same persons. The government of Guyana as the owner of GuySuCo has the responsibility for fixing the problem.
Let us look at the problem in some detail. The inexorable fall of production over the last decade became chronic because management neglected the field operations even as maintenance of the factories were left in abeyance – all for squeezing finances deployed towards the Skeldon Modernisation.
All the eggs were placed in the Skeldon Basket and when that crashed, the workers primarily suffered the effects. In hindsight, the turnkey Skeldon Factory was deployed with unwarranted optimism but while one can probably make a case for not skewering management, the workers are certainly completely out of the blame game.
The decision to have thirty percent of the Skeldon’s expanded production sourced from private cane farmers was another unrealistic decision by management. The central government had to step in aggressively and directly, in a desperate effort to get farmers up to speed.
That the latter expansion was delayed so drastically is probably the only bit of good news since the new factory would have been incapable of handling the extra cane. There has been a persistent effort on the part of management to blame the shortfall in production since 2005 on increased rainfall: in effect to label the disaster in sugar as a plight.
But this is somewhat disingenuous. The rainfall has most affected the Demerara estates but historically, these areas have always suffered from a greater overall precipitation than in Berbice.
This factor had been taken into consideration in the expansion plans announced since 1998 and which projected the increased production totally from Berbice. Some have surmised early in the day that the neglect of the Demerara cultivation and processing was a signal that as soon as Berbice came on stream, the former might be placed on the blocks.
There has even been talk among sugar workers that the sudden discovery of “spunks” in their once somnolent sugar union might be a clever move to set them up as the fall-guy for the demise of sugar in Demerara and the “need” to sell off their assets – mainly the valuable land holdings.
As it is after the last crop before the one now winding down in Berbice (and over in Demerara) workers were laid up for three to four months. The hope that they would have now received a hefty API kept them going since they would have been in a position to pay off their accumulated debt to their grocers etc.
This has now been dashed. Management on the other hand have already been awarded a holiday bonus. Where is the equity in the sharing of the burdens of the industry?
There has been a great deal of talk about the refusal of workers to turn out en masse over the last month to get the cane in the fields into the factory.
Well, sugar workers – or no workers for that matter – will sit at home twiddling their thumbs for months on end. They have families to feed and will seek alternative employment.
The present decision to deny them an API or other bonuses will only exacerbate this trend.
We can only hope that the government has made such a huge investment that will not kill the goose, that ultimately, is the one that has to deliver the (golden sugar) egg. Award the API.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News