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GuySuCo’s pursuance of ‘negative’ culture demotivating workforce – GAWU
The Guyana Agriculture and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) yesterday claimed that the actions of the Guyana Sugar Corporation is demotivating sugar workers.
President of GAWU (gesturing) along with members of the union and representatives of the workers in the background during the briefing yesterday.
The Union expressed this notion during a press conference hosted at its Headquarters yesterday in Kingston, Georgetown that was also attended by several representatives of sugar workers within the estates.
General Secretary of the Union, Seepaul Narine, disclosed that there have been a series of strikes, mostly by field workers attached to the La Bonne Intention (LBI), who have been ‘coerced practically, to be members of the Enmore Estate workforce’.
These strikes occurred on Thursday and yesterday, where workers including cane cutters, shovel men, welders, cane planters and others numbering about 450, demanded that they be allowed to work within the LBI cultivation so that their Union – GAWU – and their shop stewards could address a number of issues with Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
GuySuCo, the workers insisted, must not demand that they work under less favourable conditions as they would be required at Enmore Estate.
GAWU President Komal Chand said that a female worker, Sharon Smith, explained a few days ago that at LBI Estate, a task work is priced at $2,875 and a similar task is priced at $2,675 at Enmore Estate.
“Moreover, we cannot be oblivious to the long travelling distance between the two estates that this decision entails. The workers have correctly observed that the 2,700 hectare LBI cultivation remain intact, unlike the LBI operations namely: – the Field Workshop, Mill Dock, Field Lab, Stores, and Administrative Offices which were closed at the end of last month. In other words, their work at LBI has not become redundant,” the Union stated yesterday.
“On the other hand, the field workers of Enmore Estate are objecting to the manner their counterparts at LBI Estate are pushed over to their Estate. They also struck today to register their disagreement. They are seeking a meeting through their shop stewards and the Union’s Field Officer with the Management of the Estate to have some work issues addressed. The Estate Manager of Enmore Estate informed the Union’s Field Officer, saying GuySuCo already made its decision. The Manager’s response indicates that the workers would not be granted a forum to represent their issues.”
The GAWU President said that the Corporation has made no move to engage the Union, despite several letters that were sent requesting that the two bodies have dialogue. He added that the industry is at a juncture which requires all stakeholders to work in harmony.
The Union concluded that ‘the negative culture being pursued by the Corporation is demotivating to the workforce’.
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