Ongoing industrial action at the Skeldon factory is a blow to the sugar industry which is struggling with production, but Chief Executive Officer at GuySuCo Paul Bhim said yesterday that the second crop is in no immediate danger.

Bhim’s statement is seemingly based on the assumption that the current strike will not persist resulting in significant losses to the industry, and up to press time the workers were not yielding to management’s demands that they resume duties. For every day lost of grinding, an estimated 200 tonnes of cane are at risk of losing critical sucrose content.

The acting CEO said the canes have been harvested and are waiting to be ground, noting that a swift resolution of the issues would mean an immediate resumption of operations at Skeldon. He said discussions were ongoing with “everyone involved” to have the issues resolved, but pointed out that there were no changes.

Bhim said the corporation is willing to engage the union, but President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) Komal Chand told Stabroek News yesterday that they have been unable to have any discussions with the corporation. “They are demanding that workers resume duties before any discussions take place and the workers are holding firm”, Chand stated.

Bhim had indicated that some of the workers on the 8 am-4 pm shift had turned out for work yesterday, but Chand said the showing has been poor because “workers are still on strike”. Chand opined it is important that both sides talk and resolve the issue because the industry ultimately suffers. According to him, reaped cane is piling up at the factory.

GuySuCo took disciplinary action against nine employees following an investigation into a recent fire that resulted in extensive damage to a bagasse conveyor belt and according to Bhim, the incident will cost the industry between $20-25 million dollars in repair works. Bhim said the conveyor belt would be repaired internally since the corporation will use some spare parts from the industry’s store.

The estimated losses as a result of the fire and the missed days of grinding were around 200 tonnes of sugar, Bhim said yesterday. He said the impact was not that severe, noting that even now the industry’s second crop faces no immediate danger because “the canes are there to grind”. However, he said the longer the canes are piled up the more the risk of them losing sucrose content.

Bhim said the cause of the fire at the bagasse plant is not yet known, but that the corporation is looking at welding activities which were conducted in close proximity to the plant as the likely origin. He said a spark from the activities might have ignited; he stressed that the investigations are ongoing. Bhim said too that the corporation has no suspicions that the fire was maliciously set.

Commenting on the second crop, he said, that currently it is not affected in a major way. Bhim believes this crop will be better than previous crops. He was unable to say where the production level currently is since the crop started, noting that a full update would be available by next week.

Skeldon has a production target of 34,000 tonnes for this crop with some 480,000 tonnes of cane to be harvested.

The corporation said on Tuesday that over 650 punts of cane are in a state of readiness for crushing which will yield approximately 4,000 tonnes of sugar, and it noted that the “strike action by the factory workers is at a most inopportune time”.

Mismanagement

GAWU has blamed the corporation’s low production numbers on mismanagement and Chand told Stabroek News that the recent revision of the production target for 2010 is “not a good sign”. He said the corporation is known for further revising targets after a first revision and according to him, workers feel the brunt of it because revenue is cut.

Chand said many of the estates recorded production deficits during the dismal first crop, noting that while there have been issues with the weather there have also been internal issues. He said the union has been critical of a number of issues within the industry including the teething problems at Skeldon. Prior to the fire at the bagasse plant, two boilers at Skeldon were damaged.

GuySuCo’s production target for this year which was revised to just over 260,000 tonnes from 280,000 tonnes considerably falls off the mark set in the turnaround plan for 2010; around 300,000 tonnes of sugar. The plan envisages production reaching 400,000 in 2013 provided the industry is able to produce at a certain level during the period 2009-2013.