The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) and cane cutters are denying that there was a strike on Sunday following a turf dispute fuelled by a decision to allow Skeldon estate workers to harvest cane at Albion estate.
GAWU President Komal Chand told Stabroek News that many workers did not show up to work because of the heavy rainfall.
However, Chand said that he was surprised to hear that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) was calling it a strike. “I know there have been issues between Albion and Skeldon workers going to Albion to cut, but the weather hasn’t been good so I wouldn’t call that a strike,” he said.
He noted that some of the Albion workers may have intentionally not showed up to work, assuming that the Skeldon harvesters would have instead.
Chand explained that “during the first crop, Albion workers went to Skeldon and they weren’t received well by the Skeldon workers, so that could be another reason that the workers are upset.” But he emphasised that there was not enough work to be done on Sunday and therefore the workers not showing up could not be considered a strike.
Stabroek News spoke with a harvester from the Enmore Estate, who said that GuySuCo was not being fully truthful when it called the lack of workers on Sunday a strike.
He also noted that “cutters don’t have enough work for themselves, so other people can’t be coming and cutting your estate.”
Earlier yesterday, GuySuCo released a statement interpreting the workers’ action as strike action. The statement revealed that on July 10, GuySuCo met union representatives and Albion cane cutters and it was agreed that starting July 14, Skeldon workers would be allowed to harvest canes at Albion.
However, GuySuCo noted that workers refused to turn up on Sunday and previously did the same on July 7. GuySuCo is claiming that workers “refused to abide by the agreement and went on strike yesterday for the second time over this issue.”
GuySuCo added that since the second crop commenced on June 28, the average daily attendance of Albion harvesters is 718, which could only provide cane for 11 hours of grinding, per day, thereby incurring 13 hour of out of canes to the factory.
“The Skeldon harvesters could provide canes for an additional 4 hours of grinding per day, which is equivalent to 60 tonnes of sugar,” the statement said. GuySuCo also noted that if Skeldon workers had harvested at Albion from the commencement of the crop, an addition 960 tonnes could have been harvested, yielding $125 million in revenue.
GuySuCo also said that the inclement weather was preventing the use of machinery and as a result cane is currently being harvested on a fully manual basis.
However, the statement did not acknowledge that the same inclement weather which resulted in a fully manual harvest meant that the maximum cane was not likely to be harvested and as in the past workers did not show up to work a barely viable opportunity day.
The statement also did not detail was how many workers from Skeldon were scheduled to work at Albion and if attempts were made to have regular Albion cutters come in.
One cane cutter told Stabroek News that while GuySuCo was able to calculate money that was lost, it mean very little because that was assuming that the weather was conducive to optimum harvesting, which it wasn’t, resulting in Albion workers not turning up to work in the first place.
The second crop harvest commenced one month later than was originally intended and the numbers have been low. Chand noted that in the first week just over 1,000 tonnes of cane was harvested. He had previously told Stabroek News that workers were optimistic but that weather could prevent a large turnout.
GuySuCo heads into the second crop with 48,000 tonnes of sugar produced and additional 192,000 tonnes needed to make 2013’s 240,000 tonne target.
