The chickens have come home to roost in the sugar industry

Jan 21, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) has always been the trade union or labour arm of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). It has also always been a key player and the main labour union in sugar over the decades.

But as the governing Coalition remains steadfastly on course to rationalize the problem-plagued, money-losing and debt-ridden sector, the destructive role of the union over the years cannot escape scrutiny.

In the 1970s, it was not uncommon for GuySuCo to proudly report annual sugar production figures above 300,000 metric tonnes. This allowed Guyana to easily make sugar export targets to important international markets, far and wide.

But as the PPP stepped up the fight to weaken and remove the PNC from office in the late ‘80s, GAWU lost all pretence of being a genuine labour union, fighting for the betterment of the thousands of sugar workers that it represented.

For example, no one could forget the numerous times when GAWU called out its members on strike to build pressure on the PNC, ignoring the harm it brought on the economy and GuySuCo in particular. GAWU’s leaders never stopped for one moment to consider the fact that one day workers would become so used to walking off the job and striking that it would become the subculture that it now is.

So hark back to the 1989-90 period. This period is very politically significant in that general elections were due in 1990, five years after the last were held in 1985. PPP leaders were patrolling the world telling everyone who would listen that Guyana had no democracy, and that only free and fair elections in 1990 would restore such.

But as we all know, the elections were postponed until October 1992. The PPP won and the rest as they say is history.

GAWU used its power and influence in sugar in 1989 and 1990 to such devastating effects  that sugar production was so low that GuySuCo fell short of its lifeline and crucial export target to the European Union by 35,000 tonnes in 1989 and by 13,000 tonnes in 1990, the year when general elections were originally to be held.

In fact, in 1989, GuySuCo made 129,000 tonnes, compared to last year’s figure which was less than 140,000. GAWU also had let it be known publicly that any target the then PNC administration had set for sugar, that it (GAWU) was able to ensure that such target was not met. The efforts at reaching the target were sabotaged by the union.

That very low figure of 129,000 tonnes in an era famous for figures of about 270-280,000 was an embarrassment to the administration and GuySuCo. Had enough of us been paying keen attention, it would have occurred to us that GAWU is and was a union that was not that willing to fight for workers’ rights as it was willing to do whatever it could politically to bring the industry to a near halt to support the PPP and its political endeavours.

Today, a union that collects millions in union dues alone every month, is making the loudest noises, demanding that Government finds the money by hook or crook to pay its members full severance, despite the fact that the union has worked over the decades to ensure that GuySuCo never had a chance to function properly and efficiently.

Thousands of man hours and days were lost to strikes, industrial sit-ins and other forms of protests for the flimsiest of reasons. GuySuCo lost millions in missed production, workers missed out millions in earned wages and salaries, and export targets suffered.

The year 1989 will always be remembered as a watershed year. GAWU and the PPP called a seven-week pay strike early in the year that nearly crippled first crop production. A year earlier in 1988, workers were told to down tools for four consecutive weeks as GAWU and the PPP piled on the pressure on the PNC, oblivious to and uncaring of the negative effects these had on the economy and on production. A prolonged drought in 1988 and crop disease also worked against production.

The ‘90s saw such an exponential increase in strikes and sick days that the media hardly reported these, as they had become stale news, run-of-the-mill activities. Today, the industry is being kept alive only because authorities are wise and fearless enough to take the tough decision to close estates which need to stop producing because of inefficiencies and high production costs.

Neighbouring Caribbean governments like Trinidad and St. Kitts and Nevis opted out of sugar in the past 12 years because, like Guyana, production costs were sometimes five times higher than those of the world and other markets.

Guyana has remained and now the coalition is being pillory from all sides to meet severance payment and even reverse itself on estate closures. Many forget that after the three of the six remaining estates are closed, GuySuCo will still have about 10,000 workers on payroll.

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