GuySuCo warns of grim financial position
A crippling strike hit the sugar industry yesterday after the main union GAWU called out its members over stalled wage talks and GuySuCo is warning that its financial position is grim and in other jurisdictions estates would have already been closed and workers laid off.
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) called its members out on a strike following Tuesday’s decision by GuySuCo’s to pull out of negotiations over wages and salaries because some workers at LBI had gone on strike and it would not negotiate under duress.
Approximately 88 percent of the sugar workers yesterday took strike action.
GAWU President Komal Chand, during a press conference held yesterday at the union’s headquarters in Kingston, said that the strike action was prompted by GuySuCo’s sudden withdrawal from the second conciliatory meeting on Tuesday.
In a press release issued by the Sugar Corporation on Tuesday, it noted that “the decision to withdraw from the talks is in keeping with standard Industrial relations practice which dictates that discussions should not take place in an atmosphere of duress.”
The release said that “this position stems from the fact that a section of workers attached to the LBI Estate resorted to strike action to vent their disapproval of the Corporation’s wage offer for the year 2009 among other issues.”
The top management of GuySuCo yesterday held a press conference at the National Communications Network (NCN) where it explained its position. Usually press conferences would be held at Herdmanston House but this was recently put on the market by the corporation.
Chief Executive of GuySuCo Errol Hanoman , while reading from a prepared statement, said that the
strike “could not have come at a more inopportune time, as the current weather pattern is ideal for land rehabilitation and harvesting” and for the Industry’s turnaround plan which is in progress.”
The CE noted that “as of June 2009, over 35 percent of the industry’s cultivation was uneconomical” leading to extremely poor yields. He said that the rainfall distribution for the past 4.5 years has been erratic and well above average in both quantity and distribution.
Hanoman described the financial situation facing GuySuCo as “grim” and noted that during last year the Corporation suffered a loss of $4 billion and owed banks $3 billion. He said that at the end of September 2009, the company owed the Banks just over $5 billion and the loss for this year is projected at $2.5 billion.
He further stated that as of December 31 last year, the company owed its creditors $2.6 billion and as of last month $1.8 billion dollars. GuySuCo is also now seeing the full impact of a 36% cut in the price that it receives in its preferential European market.
Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr Nanda Gopaul said that “GuySuCo has done everything possible within the shortest space of time to meet with the workers, to meet with the unions and to speed up the wage negotiations.”
He pointed out that GuySuCo had taken several steps to make the lives of workers easier and that this should be taken into consideration by workers. He appealed to workers and the unions “to let normalcy prevail. Let us go back to the bargaining table while we talk wages. “ He pointed out that if wages were to be increased by one percent that would cost the union $150 million.
Meanwhile, Dr Gopaul, who formerly headed the other sugar union NAACIE and had participated in many strikes in his time, stressed that the company could not afford to pay staff that were not doing anything, and said that even if work does not continue, the staff that want to work may have to be sent home. He said that the salaried workers would be treated differently but stated that their positions would also have to be examined if the strike continued.
GuySuCo noted at the press conference that in many parts of the world “given the grave financial situation currently being experienced by GuySuCo, estates would have been closed and workers made redundant”. Instead, GuySuCo said that it had come up with a bold plan for the industry and was confident that its fortunes could be turned around. It said the projected investment over the next four years to return the industry to viability was estimated at over $45 billion dollars and included expanding the Blairmont estate and constructing an ethanol plant and refinery.
Yesterday workers represented by the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) were initially not allowed into the compounds of the estates but were later permitted.
Gopaul opined that the actions of the workers were counterproductive to the sugar industry and suggested that they were being badly advised. He said some were calling to be “paid off” but he said that this could not be done. He explained that only if the worker’s job becomes redundant and if they are proven to be medically unfit before retirement time could they be paid off. He said that if they choose to leave they do so at their own risk.
Meanwhile, General Secretary of GAWU Seepaul Narine said that contrary to what was being peddled “the strike by the majority of cane cutters at the LBI Estate on Tuesday “had no relation to negotiations” between GAWU and GuySuCo. He contended that since the Corporation realizes that its initial production target of 290,000 “is far from realization” it is attempting through its abrupt withdrawal from the negotiations to blame the workers’ strike action/s for the poor performance of the industry again.
Narine said that according to the latest estimate, the sugar company “is forecasting a production of just about 242,000 tonnes”. The General Secretary noted that as of Monday, the industry’s production stood at 189, 411 tonnes , 52, 589 tonnes short of the new target. “The remaining quantity of canes could be harvested in just seven weeks, at a production of 8,000 tonners of sugar per week”, Narine noted. He suggested that “given the long predictable dry weather during this year, the Corporation recognizes that there is a lot of time to have all the canes harvested and, therefore, to exhaust the workers in strikes is seemingly its choice”.
Narine described this as a “nefarious ploy “by GuySuCo and called upon the company to “avail itself to allow the negotiations to resume without further delay under the Chairmanship of the Chief Labour Officer.”
Chand, said that contrary to reports, the protest at LBI was not over the three percent increase offer put to the union. He said that while the union had asked for a 15 percent increase it would have been immature to protest when negotiations were still going on. He said that employees at the LBI estate had their own grievances. He noted that they have no target for this week to achieve the weekly production incentive (WPI). They were also on strike in solidarity with those cane cutters from Diamond over a price dispute they were having. He explained that there have been issues which require work stoppages. He stated that an agreement signed in 1976 with GuySuCo allows for the withdrawal of labour when there is a price dispute. He said that he was prepared to struggle for the rights of the workers, even if they ended up losing the struggle.
Meanwhile in criticizing the actions of GuySuCo, he said that the sugar company had also opted out of a meeting with the union that was supposed to be held yesterday under the supervision of the Labour Ministry.
General Secretary of NAACIE Kenneth Joseph has condemned the action taken by GuySuCo in locking out some of its union members from the estates when it was the GAWU workers that were striking.
Joseph, in a release, said that while the Company has asked NAACIE represented workers of the Estates to stay at home without any discussion or information to the NAACIE Secretariat, “all of the non-unionised workers which include security, watchmen and senior staff attached to the affected Estates are at work.”
“The affected NAACIE category of workers were not informed of what date they are expected to return to work”, Joseph said. According to him, the union is very concerned with the direction taken by GuySuCo, “especially in the light of the Union’s doubt in the company’s ability to reach targeted tonnage of sugar for 2009.”
The union is worried that their membership will be blamed along with other unionized workers for this unfortunate out come, he said.
The General Secretary stated that should management of the corporation blatantly incite members of NAACIE to withdraw their labour at specific estates, the union would not disappoint them, but will assure that all of its members support each other in any industrial action.
Joseph said that the union will be discussing this matter with the Federation of Independent Trade Union of Guyana (FITUG) before the end of this week.
