A common story no matter where one goes in this country

Mar 18, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
I recently met some sugar workers on the West Coast, Demerara and was shocked to hear their complaints about their lives and the future for their children, when things in their opinion, are getting harder and harder.
One gentleman related to me that he has been a heavy machine operator for the last 23 years and they pay him an average of $1,800 (US$9) a day, after taxes, and then there’s VAT. He mentioned that with three children and his wife at home to look after the kids, he was “stretching” the “paper” the best he could but that it was a struggle every month.
Another citizen, also a sugar worker, but in the fields, told me of his own frustrations since he went into early retirement even though he could work for three more years; when he went to GuySuCo to discuss his pay, they told him that he would be getting about $5,000 (US$25) a month – after 20 odd years cutting and hauling sugarcane, one of the hardest jobs on the face of the planet.
He decided to go back to work after he told the “big shots” at GuySuCo that before he exists on $5,000 a month, they could keep the money because it couldn’t “mind” his family. Stories like these were related to me for quite a while and as I sat there I wondered how these folks could exist on these meager salaries.
Mr. Editor, on top of all the hardships the people face, it is the crime they complain about. Young girls can’t walk the village streets after dark; a lot of young men without jobs are getting into criminal activities right in the village; no proper street lighting and hardly any maintenance for drainage problems, so flooding affects their lives quite often. Streets mostly broken up with potholes with little maintenance; honest, hard working citizens running businesses in the area can’t get licences for firearms to protect themselves. And on top of all that, there are no fire prevention services available to come to the citizens’ aid when there is a serious fire.
Mr. Editor, all the folks who talked to me have one common complaint: that the representatives of the local government authority are doing a very poor job to help the citizens secure a better life.
This is a common story no matter where one goes in this country and with no local and regional elections in 15 years in this country, no wonder the citizens are not served properly.
The people need more than what they’re getting and the sugar workers, traditionally, one of the back-bone occupations in our country, deserve more consideration from those who influence their lives: GuySuCo and GAWU. Let these two “sugar king” entities get working to make the sugar industry and the citizens who inhabit it, better off in life.
All the problems in the sugar industry stem from the fact that, no matter what, the workers in that industry are not taken care of properly and the “big shots” in the government, who own this industry, are not paying real interest in the welfare of the sugar workers with innovations, new priorities and proper incentives for better wages, better working conditions and a real future for the industry.
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr.)

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