500,000 tonnes of cane left uncut

Dec 29, 2010 News

– Agri. Minister says GuySuCo moving ‘rapidly’ to mechanical harvesting

Two major strikes over pay are partly to blame for an estimated 500,000 tonnes of sugar cane left uncut in the fields, the Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud told reporters yesterday at an end-of year briefing at the entity’s Vlissengen Road headquarters.
Persaud noted that if the cane had reached the factories, it would have resulted in sugar production of 274,000 tonnes. He explained that the cane would be harvested and processed in the first crop of next year, but with the amount of time they were left in the fields, he doubted that the desired sugar production would be achieved.
Problems with workers saw a poor turnout in the second crop, with the minister putting the attendance figure at 48%. The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) was hoping to boost production over the holiday weekend, but only one percent of workers turned out on Monday, and yesterday, it was a meagre 8%.
Persaud said that the problems of the last year would help the Corporation to model a “new industry” which would involve moving more and more into mechanical harvesting to cope with absent cane cutters.
But, in the approaching elections year, Persaud was careful to stress that workers are important to the industry. He said the plan is for GuySuCo to move towards semi-mechanisation in the next five years.
In fact, Peraud said that the Corporation had taken a conscious decision to scale back on its mechanisation plan to save jobs.
“Now you recognise you don’t have the workers there, and perhaps the lack of interest in some regard, so for (the sugar industry’s) survival, mechanisatiion and semi-mechanisation will be required,” Persaud declared.
He said mechanization will move gradually from estate to estate.
The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), he pointed out, is “rapidly” moving to implement this.
During the past year, the Corporation experienced one of its worst headaches in recent times given demands for more pay by workers and a stubborn union, and would have to be bailed out again next year by tax payers, Persaud stated.
The government has already bought over sugar lands valued at $2 billion for housing development, and when that is paid over, which could be anytime, the Corporation will tally its books and give the government a fair idea of how much it will have to put in to keep the industry afloat.
The problems between the workers’ union, GAWU, and the hierarchy of the corporation, have already sparked noteworthy exchanges in the ruling party, for which the vote of sugar workers has always been important.
The President of GAWU, Komal Chand, sits as a Member of Parliament for the ruling party, but he stayed away from a meeting President Bharrat Jagdeo held with sugar workers last week to tell them to take-or-leave a five percent pay increase.
The worst row between the union and the sugar corporation began in late November when the union called a one-week strike, shutting down the industry and this escalated two weeks ago when management threatened to de-recognise the union. .
The Corporation insisted it had no money to give an increase and last week, President Jagdeo stepped in to calm the situation by offering a 5% payout.
Yesterday, Persaud emphasized that a new industry would have to be modeled in 2011.
“The desire is to have a very healthy and productive relationship between workers and management.”
He said workers have concerns and these concerns have to be given due attention by the board and management of the Corporation.
“At the same time too, the industry demands from its workers – from its management too – full commitment and support if we’re going to make a success of the turnaround plan. So it is everyone getting on board with a full commitment and that desire to turn the industry around and make the industry successful.”
GuySuCo had insisted that it needed to produce 270, 000 tonnes of sugar at the end of the year to be able to afford an increase, but the union had argued that there was no way that target could have been met because of inclement weather and the fact that the new multi-million-dollar factory at Skeldon in the Berbice region is not operating up to scratch.
The US$181 million facility was commissioned in August 2009 and hailed as the boon to the survival of the sugar industry, but GAWU said the performance of the factory has diminished significantly from crushing about 210 tonnes cane per hour to between 90 and 120 tonnes as a result of severely worn-out hammers and leaking boiler tubes, among other defects.
The Union called for the factory to be shut down and for the faults to be fixed.
Yesterday, Persaud said that a contract has been signed with the Chinese contractor to fix the defects by the end of June next year. The cost for fixing the defects will come out of the US$11 million in Chinese funding for the factory that was not handed over to the contractors.