WPA defends GuySuCo’s restructuring

Jan 20, 2018 News

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The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has broken its silence on the restructuring of the country’s sugar industry…it fully supports the process.
The party, which is part of A Partnership For National Unity (APNU), the largest faction in the Coalition Government, says that it wants to go on record to support the restructuring.
“Given the political and ethnic sensitivities surrounding the industry, we salute the government for taking this very bold step. In doing so, it has broken the cycle of political manipulation by the PPP and its allies and in the process, joins other countries in the hemisphere in squarely facing the challenges of sustaining an industry based on government subsidies. Poor economies such as ours cannot carry that burden forever,” the party said.
The statement by WPA would be significant.
“It makes no economic sense to continue to produce sugar at a cost that far exceeds the market price. The statistics in this regard are well known. In the end, financing the subsidy has had a negative effect on the rest of the economy. Indeed, over time it has become one of the barriers to economic growth. But given, the centrality of the sugar industry to the larger economy, WPA believed and still believes that the restructuring process should be well thought through and should be done in consultation with the workers and their representatives.”
WPA said that while we support the restructuring of the industry, it has always held the position that it should not be done at the expense of the workers’ welfare.
“We still hold strongly to that position. We believed that special care should be taken to ensure that where possible, workers are relocated to other sections of the industry or sectors of the economy or be adequately compensated. It is against this background that WPA supported the Commission of Inquiry and endorsed most of its recommendations. We also supported the subsequent State Paper presented to the government by GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation).”
As a party founded and grounded in the defence of the poor and the powerless, WPA said it would never be party to any plan that undermines workers’ interests.
“It was in keeping with this that we continuously urged the workers to ensure that their issues and positions are made known to the GuySuCo Board through their union representatives. Towards this end, we are satisfied that GuySuCo has gone to great length to ensure that the sugar workers at the lower levels are adequately compensated. WPA rejects the accusations leveled at GuySuCo’s Board that consultations were not held with workers and their representatives on plans to right size the operations.”
The party insisted that it is widely known that GuySuCo had on numerous occasions initiated discussions with the workers representatives on the future of the industry.
“It is regrettable that funds for the severance payments were not catered for in the 2018 budget, but government must be commended for acting to ensure speedy payment of 50% of the amount promised. WPA would be vigilant in ensuring that the government keeps its promise to pay the remainder in a timely manner.”
WPA also noted that it is public knowledge that Guyana got to the point of “rightsizing” the sugar industry, projected at around 150,000 tons, by 2020, serving the most profitable markets given available labour supply.
“In addition, GuySuCo plans to develop diversified enterprises to complement revenue from sugar. We call on GuySuCo to make the requisite investment in people, technology and managerial systems to sustain the competitive advantage of sugar and to stabilize employment at around 11, 000 workers. We urge government to give GuySuCo the autonomy to make business decisions free from political interference and to ensure that managers are held accountable for those decisions.”
WPA noted that when ‘king’ sugar was in economic distress from manipulation of sugar prices, changes in technology and trade policies or erosion of market access, Guyana demonstrated resilience in adding new economic activities including rice and gold.
“The WPA urges workers to demonstrate once again their capacity to develop alternative employment that do not depend on cheap labour. Already, peasant cane farmers at Uitvlugt have increased their supply of cane from 0 % to 58 % under GuySuCo’s Farmers’ Land Leased Initiative. GuySuCo has also launched its own Alternative Livelihood Programme for affected workers. We call on government to provide the necessary institutional and financial support to enable displaced workers to develop sustainable livelihoods in which Government cannot be the only stakeholder.”
WPA also said it supports private sector initiatives that promote economic linkage and provide quality jobs for working people.
“We call on government to observe all labour laws and collective agreements in dealing with the separation benefits of displaced workers. The public should also be aware that government will have to meet additional financial commitments for pensions.
These include NIS and taxes that GuySuCo was unable to pay because of the disparity between cost of production and sugar prices since 2006.
“This is in addition to the estimated $4B for severance, the $32B since 2015, the $2B guarantee for operations in 2018. We believe that the incumbent Government of Guyana cannot be accused of neglecting sugar, and we urge the public to support the measures to make the industry viable and competitive.”
WPA said its long term view sees GuySuCo as a diversified, publicly traded entity financed and managed by Guyanese in much the same way as Banks DIH, DDL or Sterling Products Limited.
Under the restructuring, to cut costs, GuySuCo will be operating three estates, down from the seven it had in 2016.
The 16,000 workers that GuySuCo had in 2016 is to be reduced to about 10,000-11,000, officials say.
The restructuring has divided the Government and the Opposition – the latter has built its support on the sugar industry.

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