How could sugar workers be confident in our Government when it is heartless to them?

Dec 22, 2018 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

The GAWU recognized from several sections of the media that as the APNU+AFC Government sought to portray confidence as it faced a no confidence motion in the National Assembly yesterday, through a statement, it listed what seemed to be its achievements.
While, we are aware that Governments tend to highlight their successes, at the same time, they are expected to be honest and forthright in what they are saying. On this score, when our Union looked at what the Coalition said about the sugar industry, we could not help but be saddened by the deceptive lengths the Administration has gone to as it seeks to tout its accomplishments.
On sugar, the Administration points out “[e]ven with the closure of some estates, and the right-sizing of GuySuCo, the jobs of 10,000 sugar workers have been protected and production at only three estates has netted, so far, 105,000 tonnes of sugar for 2018”.
It is disheartening that the Administration has sought to whitewash the loss of 7,000 jobs and the misery that greets tens of thousands of Guyanese as “rightsizing”.
Well-known commentator, Mr Christopher Ram in a December 19, online news article is quoted to have said “[t]he people need employment; they need support and it seems that they’re almost forgotten and its cynical, it’s callous and it’s cruel”.
Mr Ram went on to say “…you can’t take away their lifeline, the very essence of the community and think that you have solved the problem and you’ve created some extremely costly social problems”.
Ram is further quoted as saying “[t]eachers are pooling money to give a meal to children. That child is a human being who is going to grow into an adult and what is he or she going to do?”
While we are happy to know that the Guyanese spirit for compassion and charity is alive and well, at the same time, we must ask: how can our people have confidence in a Government that is doing heartless things to its people?
For the GAWU, what is worse is that the Administration was warned repeatedly that such situations would emerge, and yet it callously closed the estates without a thought about the future of these ordinary Guyanese.
The Coalition goes on to speak about 10,000 jobs being protected, but GuySuCo told our Union at the end of August 2018 it had 7,970 workers in its employ. Of that, 463 were retained at the now closed estates and will be terminated soon as the Corporation ends its operations at those estates. But putting that aside for a moment, for the 7,000 plus workers who remain, they exist in a most confused state-of-mind as they see playing out in the public the tug-of-war regarding the industry’s operations.
We recognise Mr Ram saying too “[w]hat we have is chaos, confusion and misdirection…”
They see $30B being borrowed but nothing substantial being done. They know that while there is talk to revitalize the industry, there is no plan to guide that process. GAWU and the workers want the industry to be protected, as the Government says, but the Administration really needs to get its house in order.
The Government boasts about the production this year, an achievement buttressed by the hard work, dedication and commitment of the thousands of sugar workers. But for those efforts this Government which says “…everyone… deserve to enjoy the good life”, has not given the sugar workers any increase in pay since it took office more than three and a half years ago.
Today, apart from a wage freeze, the sugar workers lot has not only stagnated but declined as well, although the Administration is telling workers they have “…every reason to be hopeful that their lot would further improve in the near future”. Undoubtedly, the Government, in trying to take some shame out if its face, has offered the workers a bonus, which is under discussion.
At the end of the day, the bonus while welcome, at the same time, will see workers in 2019 earning the same rates-of-pay that were approved since in 2014. Indeed, if the Administration is really sincere, then it would seek to right this wrong committed against the clearly hard-working sugar workers.
But the Administration entered the stage of obscene absurdity when it tells the Guyanese public, seemingly unashamedly, that “[m]any sugar workers were rehired…”
A great lot of the terminated sugar workers remain jobless securing odd jobs usually lasting for a few days. The evidence is there, naked for the eye to see.
The GAWU recalls, the September 20, Stabroek News quoted one worker as saying “[m]e a go beg for security wuk to keep me children in school and me na get nothing, job na deh”. Another ex-worker, Patrick Mahendrasingh saying “[t]his government want me to commit suicide or murder just to send me children them to school, days when me deh home me ah sit and cry to think that I can’t able take care of my children them…”
The Administration, ignobly has the gall to say that the workers “…all were paid severance with interest”. We cannot help but wonder how much lower can the Administration sink. The struggle for the jobless sugar workers to receive their lawful severance payments is one of the most shameful episodes of this Government.
As the public well knows, the Administration, in another of its too oft Rip Van Winkle moments, didn’t cater to pay the workers and then proceeded at past the eleventh hour to pay workers half of their entitlements. The Government’s conduct, which was contrary to the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act, forced GAWU to approach the Courts which ruled in the workers’ favour and awarded interests. It was not due to the Coalition’s benevolence, as it seeks to portray, but it is an order of the Judiciary that caused interests to be paid.
The GAWU recalls too that when the supplementary allocation regarding the severance pay was being addressed in the National Assembly on October 31, the Minister of Agriculture virtually ruled out any interest to the workers. For the Administration to come now and pat itself on the back for this achievement birthed from the workers’ struggles, is to be as low as one can get.
While the Administration mouths-off, the fact remains that there is little substance for all that cheap talk. Today the listing of these seeming achievements, reminds us of the glorious promises of the elections campaign. Those commitments, as we all know, turned out to be hollow, meaningless rhetoric.

Yours faithfully,
Seepaul Narine
General Secretary
GAWU

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