Government is not solely to blame for the downfall of Guysuco

May 29, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

Since taking leadership of Guyana, this present administration has failed the sugar industry tremendously and during the period, they’ve closed estates and caused many to be unemployed. Failure to create jobs for the unemployed becomes another embarrassment to them. Regrettably, they’ve also neglected the functioning estates and these are slowly deteriorating. Despite what they are saying, they have no intention of doing anything proper to develop the sugar industry.

Recently canes are being grinded at Uitvlugt Estate, and despite major mishaps during the previous crop, management failed to properly address the existing problems and instead of working at a normal pace, sugar is being produce at snail’s pace. Should they try to increase the speed of production, major damages would occur, thus they are being forced to operate the factory at the slowest pace possible.

Since the crop started, almost every week, grinding of sugar canes is halted once or twice a week due to mechanical problems arising at the factory. As a result, the purity of the sugar canes is being lost, thus less sugar is being extracted from the canes. Added to that, the sugarcanes are not being cut in a timely manner and as expected, the crop took longer than as normally expected, which attracts additional expense. It finishes but not with expected results.

Finally, in reference to Thursday’s article about the striking sugar workers at the Uitvlugt Estate, their reasons for striking are very communal if one listened to them carefully. The sugar workers know that they will get their money today (Friday). It was already announced during the week. Their working hours are reduced to 5 hrs and some salaries dropped. They go to work, don’t have much work and some are sleeping, hiding and leaving the compound to drink alcohol – they wanted the full hours or salaries. They know the country in a crisis, but they want to suck the blood out. The estate provides transportation that drop workers on the public road where they live. As indicated in the article, factory workers have to wear safety helmets and boots.

I’m of the opinion that they are lying on the police. Whilst many other regions have stricter rules that the police are enforcing, the Region Three police are hardly harassing people on the road, and should they see a worker from the estate, with safety helmet and boots, I am quite sure they would understand.

In closing, I wouldn’t blame the downfall of Guysuco on Government alone; workers are easily responsible

Yours truly,
Sahadeo Bates