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It’s impossible for GAWU to divorce itself from the destruction of the sugar industry
DEAR EDITOR,
I won’t waste much time responding to the GAWU’s letter where they tried to dismiss their glaring political conflict of interest, and regurgitate their alleged commitment to sugar workers.
Any objective person will see that something is very wrong when political persons have control over state-paid workers. This situation might have been acceptable when Guyana was liberating itself from external powers, but it has been going on for so long that no real look has been given to this situation.
Yet, I assure you that it is now absolutely necessary, given Guyana’s politically-linked racial divide, in the interest of unity, democracy and transparency, to review the GAWU/PPP relationship.
I do not wish to “tarnish” or “discredit” any person, but to simply state the facts.
The issue is not GuySuCo, it is not the sugar workers, and it is not the Skeldon Factory that is up for scrutiny, it is clear that those who managed or represented various interests have failed.
The former People’s Progressive Party administration destroyed the sugar industry and made it dependent on the State. The situation became grave when US$200M – US$50M more than the entire CJIA upgrade project – was spent on one factory that never functioned up to par.
Whatever electricity and other resources came out of the massive investment, as GAWU claims, did not ease the woes of GuySuCo, as Jagdeo claimed. He said that the mega factory would do the job of several dilapidated factories, and that he would personally make the factory work when questioned about its mammoth cost. It never worked and that investment went down the drain, crippling the industry further.
It was PPP executives who were at the helm of the union when the PPP government made all the wrong and careless moves. GAWU’s direct connection to the PPP and at hierarchal levels makes it impossible for the union to divorce itself from the destruction of the industry.
When Jagdeo said he was taking the bulk of GuySuCo’s money to invest into one factory, as he had bankrupted NIS with the Berbice Bridge, we are expected to believe that GAWU would have done everything in its power to stop that right?
GAWU says its leaders are elected by its membership, but GAWU was birthed by the PPP, the PPP never lost its connection with the union, so regardless of who “the membership” chooses, that party’s influence remains.
As it stands, GAWU and the PPP are interlocked – the former needs union dues to survive and the latter needs the sugar workers as an asset to be used when necessary.
Regardless of what GAWU says, these are the facts of the matter and I rest my case.
If the issue of conflict of interest has taken precedence, with claims of ‘we do not want the new government to treat us like the PPP did’, then the old ways and institutions need reviewing and revamping, because like other organisations, GAWU’s situation is not healthy one, especially for an oil wealthy country with unhealthy divisions.
Peter Joseph
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