Strike action by mechanical tillage operators at the Wales Estate continues after management and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) failed to compromise on the beginning of the working day of those workers.
The protest action began on Tuesday last after GuySuCo proposed to approximately 70 workers a change in the beginning of their working day from 6 am to 7 am.
The decision to continue the strike came after a meeting with senior GuySuCo and GAWU officials failed to reach adecision which would result in both the workers and management being satisfied.
Speaking to Stabroek News via telephone on Friday night, GAWU official Aslim Singh said that the workers are ready to compromise with GuySuCo but it is not the same on the other end.
He said: “The workers are ready to compromise but GuySuCo is not ready, they want the workers to work from 7 am during out-of-crop season and return to the 6 am schedule when it is crop season and the workers are not prepared to do that.”
Singh told Stabroek News that the workers want a standard working time, be it 6 am or 7 am, but they do not want to be treated as a group of children.
Estate Manager Devindra Kumar told this newspaper that the workers cannot work from 7 am to 3 pm out-of-crop and crop season as well, mainly because when it is in-crop season the mechanical tillage operators work a 12-hour shift which runs from 6 am to 6 pm and 6 pm to 6 am. If the workers are allowed to work from 7 am he noted that will change the standard shift system and that is not acceptable.
GAWU in a press release stated that the management’s decision is an ‘arbitrary’ one and a delegation of workers met with representatives of the estate management who reportedly told them that they could either “take it or leave it”.
The matter was then reported to the union’s head office which arranged a meeting with GuySuCo on Wednesday and at that meeting, the GuySuCo representative advised the union to take the matter to the estate level, saying that the management was spoken to, the release added.
After the matter was referred to the Ministry of Labour, officials from GAWU and GuySuCo met with acting Chief Labour Officer, Charles Ogle and it was recommended that the workers take up work on Friday at 6:30 am and allow further discussion between the management of the estate and the union.
After a two-hour session with the union, the estate management refused to allow the status quo ante to prevail. As a result the workers decided to continue their strike while another meeting has been arranged by the Chief Labour Officer for today.
