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GuySuCo abandons wage talks after objecting to placard-bearing union reps
Wage increase talks were halted yesterday after Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) officials refused to engage union representatives who were bearing slogans.
The union representatives and other yesterday.
According to the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), its senior officials were at the meeting with the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE).
Representing GuySuCo, were its Chief Executive, Dr. Harold Davis (Jr) and Finance and Marketing Director, Paul Bhim and other officials.
The meeting was to continue the struggle for a pay rise for sugar workers this year, GAWU said.
The three-estate GuySuCo, reduced from seven in the last four years, has been struggling for decades with a reduced target of 100,000 tonnes expected to see a massive shortfall.
Almost 7,000 workers lost their jobs in the last four years under the coalition government due to cost-cutting and other measures to bring profitability back to the industry.
Four of the estates, including the troubled Skeldon, are up for divestment.
The union representatives and other yesterday.
The union said that the meeting begun with a presentation by the corporation’s Finance and Marketing Director and during the course of interaction, delegations from the unions donned their placards.
“The corporation, almost immediately, objected, contending that our placards were not allowed on the company’s premises. Both the GAWU and the NAACIE pointed out that our respective delegations were not disruptive to the meeting. In fact, our delegations remained present in their seats listening attentively to the presentation. At no time, was the GuySuCo team prevented from speaking. The Corporation nevertheless insisted that we abandon our placards.”
The unions said that, on principled grounds, they refused to put away the slogans.
“We contended that we were merely expressing our views which are not different from what we have shared in the past with the corporation and publicly as well. We also pointed out that our actions were not in violation of any industrial relations tenet as we maintained our stance. Moreover, we pointed out to GuySuCo that the freedom of expression was a sacred and highly-held constitutional one it should not seek to undermine.”
GAWU said that it did not escape its attention that, in recent times, in other arenas of the nation, there has been concerted attempts to shut down the expressions of the people.
“It appeared to us that the corporation was joining the bandwagon as it sought to quell our unions’ expressions. The demand by the corporation to put away of slogans, we felt, was an inconsiderate and an unreasonable request. It is disheartening for us to recognize that a state-owned company is seeking to apparently muzzle the expressions of its workers. We prevailed on the corporation for better sense to prevail and for the meeting to continue.”
“As it is now a well-known, and an ignominious, fact sugar workers’ pay has remain unchanged since 2014. During the now more than 1,800 days that have gone by, the cost of living has risen significantly. Official statistics have confirmed that the cost of food for instance has risen by 17 per cent with several staple food items going up in excess of 20 per cent. At the same time, workers have confronted several other increases through the imposition of taxes and hiking of tariff fees.”
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