Factory workers on the Blairmont Sugar Estate yesterday downed their tools and protested against GuySuCo’s non-payment of rates from a 2013 arbitration award but the corporation has responded saying that the workers had received their payments in full.
General Secretary of the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE)—the union representing the sugar workers—Kenneth Joseph told Stabroek News that nearly twenty workers have instigated a strike to protest what they called unfair treatment meted out to them after years of imposed salaries.
Joseph said the workers will continue to take industrial action until GuySuCo pays them their monies. “The union is fully behind these workers and we will continue the strike until the money is paid even if it takes us whole year,” he said, while noting that it mattered not how many workers strike but how muchsugar is produced, and the less sugar produced the greater the strain on the industry and the corporation.
In a brief statement, the union said after a prolonged struggle it had eventually accomplished the desired salaries but this too was short-lived as a result of the “corporation action in causing the prices of jobs done by the NAACIE members to be once again unfavourable and anomalous when compared to workers with lesser skills or no skills at all”.
NAACIE said the agreements of July 2011 and the Norman Mc Lean Arbitration Tribunal of 2013 were attempts to ensure fairness but, “the corporation in its ongoing attempt to be unfair to NAACIE members refused to pay workers what was from the Award of the Arbitration and what was confirmed by the Minister of Labour during a meeting with GuySuCo and NAACIE”.
The statement added that NAACIE hopes the corporation would see their actions as the beginning of a confrontational relationship with the new GuySuCo Chief Executive Officer, Raj Singh and his team.
Human Resource Director of GuySuCo Jairam Petam however stated that the union’s demand was outside of the award and therefore the corporation could not meet their ultimatum. He said that rates from the Award of the arbitration were the result of a meeting between GuySuCo, the union and the Norman Mc Lean Arbitration Tribunal and have been paid in full to the workers.
Joseph, on the other hand, dismissed GuySuCo’s claim of paying workers the amount due, calling it a lie.
“They are lying…what they are saying is not accurate,” he said, restating that the union will continue taking industrial action. He added that NAACIE had issued an ultimatum to the corporation on December 27, 2013.
