Sugar workers’ plight a result of national mismanagement

Mar 11, 2012 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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By Gerhard Ramsaroop
Within recent weeks the Alliance For Change has noted with great concern the spate of industrial action sweeping through the sugar industry. This is a rather unsettling state of affairs. The AFC is convinced that the industrious, hard-working employees of the sugar estates are not engaging in strike action lightly. They obviously feel that their backs are up against a wall and they see no other avenue of recourse than to strike. It will not be surprising if workers in other sectors soon take similar action.

AFC EXPECTATIONS OF THE 2012 BUDGET
In this regard the AFC will demand that the 2012 National budget addresses specific interests of the vast majority of Guyanese. The AFC recognizes the onerous burden carried by sugar workers and the average citizen who are forced to pay 33.3% of their wages towards taxes and then 16 percent as Value Added Tax.
The AFC considers the present tax regime an albatross around the necks of our workers. In this regard, the AFC will insist that the 2012 National Budget lighten the burden on taxpayers. The income tax threshold must be raised as should old age pensions, income tax must be lowered, Value Added Tax must be reduced and more items taken off the list, there must be assistance for women with school-aged children, more assistance for single-parent households, and initiatives that will encourage business expansion thereby creating more jobs.
At a time when levels of domestic violence in our communities are rapidly rising, the AFC expects the national budget to include funding for more shelters and safeway houses for battered women and their children.  Real solutions must be implemented immediately and these include programmes to provide transitional financial support for women ready to walk out of abusive relationships but who do not have the requisite financial resources to do so. Real change is needed now to end the scourge of domestic violence in Guyanese society.

 

AFC SUGAR INDUSTRY PLAN
The AFC has for years been saying that the sugar industry cannot continue to operate the way it has been doing for the past decade. It needs serious interventions and a management system that caters not only for the high-priced managers, but also takes into account the needs of the lowest tier of its workers, who are the ones that really keep the wheels of production within the industry turning.
The present management structure, headed by accountants, lacks the management skills needed to lift GuySuCo out of the slump it is in. The industry cannot be viable if continues to be run by accountants and politicos. At present, GuySuCo has no agri-engineers or hydrologists.
During the last elections campaign period, the AFC had outlined its plan to revitalize and restructure the sugar industry so that it would reclaim its position of ‘sweet gold’
Long before others were contemplating investing in an Ethanol industry in Guyana, the AFC was shouting from the rooftops about the benefits of such an investment and its ability to turn around the economic fortunes of Guyana’s sugar industry.
The AFC’s position is to build a sugar industry that is based on innovation and sustainability, where the infrastructure and technology needs of the industry are in place to facilitate GuySuCo and the private sector to thrive. Decades of PNC and PPP rule have failed to move the industry forward; recently the PPP made a significant blunder in not implementing the Sugar Action Plan in full with a primary focus on developing a sugar ethanol industry in Guyana.
The AFC believes that we must use our land, our talent in the industry, our access to the US Ethanol market and the private sector partners to better position the nation to reap the benefits from our competitive advantage at producing ethanol cane. Sugarcane is among the cheapest sources of ethanol feedstock.
The AFC’s sugar action plan will create many new jobs in the industry in the following areas:
1-    Engaging investors (local and international) into developing the Canje Basin for ethanol cane with nearby distilleries for producing ethanol for the international market.
2-    Use our abundant sugar/molasses to produce ethanol for  local use – begin legislation for Guyana to adopt the E-10 Policy;
3-    Incentivise Guyoil and other oil companies to invest in mixing-tanks for blending the E-10 (10% Ethanol gasoline);
It is the AFC’s position that it is necessary de-politicise and professionalise the decision making process at GuySuCo and to invite an international Technical Mission from Brazil, India or other  countries with core competence in sugar technology, to analyse GuySuCo with a view to revising the Sugar Action Plan.
The Plan also included establishing a sugar factories’ rehabilitation programme to make them efficient and cost effective; re-engage local expertise to change the agronomical practices in the field to boost yield; mechanise the cane harvesting process which will complement workers as well as introduce many more skilled jobs; introduce a Cane-Quality Assurance System that  incentivises cane farmers based on cane quality; involve the private sector in the financing and managing of the new cane lands in the Upper Corentyne area.
In its plan the AFC also proposed providing funding for research, extension services and a scholarship programme at NARI, IAST and UG to produce a core competence for the industry, along with revising the curriculum at the Port Morant Training Centre to make it more relevant to the challenges of the industry; accelerate the development of the Berbice
Deepwater Harbour with a temporary sugar storage facility in Berbice to reduce the cost of transporting sugar and ethanol to the international market; accelerate the development of a sugar refinery and; enhance the quality of life of sugar workers within their communities through better facilities, sports and social amenities.
These interventions will bring new life to the failing sugar industry while assuring its thousands of workers of a secure income. The time has come for serious consideration to be given to these suggestions as a means of guaranteeing the improvement of the economic position of all Guyanese.

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