Sugar workers’ strike may have been motivated by the Ministerial salary increase

Oct 31, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
When the sugar industry downed its tools and called out its workers on a nationwide strike, they were fulfilling the role of being militant as well as vigilant, in the face of mounting incompetence and corruption in the government. They were following in a consistent pattern of behaviour in not tolerating gross mismanagement, something that is so blatantly rampant in Guyana today. They were saying that they were not going accept corruption from PPP/C and most certainly not from the PNC dominated Coalition. They were ascribing to the notion that lawlessness is what it is and must be urgently addressed.
In fact the sugar workers are also well aware of the fact that the perpetrators of present day mess were the very same individuals who were trumpeting the campaign against it. Leading up to the May 11th Elections the Coalition’s theme was the PPP/C are corrupt look at the horrible atrocities and corrupting influences of the people, we can do the job of lifting this country out of its dark corruption and into the light of better days. Not the exact words but tantamount to it nonetheless.
However, looking at the present Granger Administration you will see a 180 degrees turnaround from their original stance . They are now firmly set in their crude ways. They are now saying that they are one set of rules governing them and another for the people, a message taught to us in Animal Farm. In essence we are at a different operation level to the people, we can live off the fat of the land while the rest of the populace live with the crumbs that might and I repeat, the crumbs that might happen to fall from their table. Well if this is not financial greed then what is.? This is the situation that confronts us. So, the sugar workers had no other alternative than to call a strike.
They did not get what they wanted, that is, a government to rescind their huge salary increase but, they did register their disgust at the government’s corrupt practices. However, far more important is the fact that the other so called militant unions like The Public Service Unions and Guyana Teacher Unions were silent. They should have been out in numbers in solidarity with their brothers and sisters in the sugar belt. But they did not, reasons being they do not want to appear as being hard or “traitors” to their party in power. To think that these very same unions were up in arms against the PPP/C and, if you can reflect, were on the streets prior to May 11th. One such union was the teacher’s union who even threatened further action if their demands weren’t met. You can recall that the unions at our tertiary institution were locked in battle with the former government. For weeks they held strike action which denied our future, our children a full education. I ask the question where are they now? Have they lost their militancy?
It all boils down to this fact, those unions who are all pro PNC are now cowering in the closet because their government is in control now. The aim of their “principled” stance on corruption then has lost its appeal in the face of mounting wrong-doing from the Coalition. Therefore we can conclude the aggression by the PNC dominated public service unions was meant to get the PPP/C out and nothing else. It had nothing to do with the principle or caring for the livelihood and comfort of workers they claim to represent, it was all about playing out their narrow partisan politics in a union setting. Just like their lying party in power, they too have used the people they claim to represent.
Neil Adams

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Sugar workers’ strike may have been motivated by the Ministerial salary increase

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