After striking for the past three days, sugar workers are expected to head back to the fields and factories today even as their union called on the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to begin wages’ talks.
“We want a resolution and to have good exchanges. It is in the interest of workers of the industry to be productive,” head of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) Komal Chand told Stabroek News today. He said that the decision to strike was not made lightly.
GAWU has called on GuySuCo to comply with the Trade Union Recognition Act and engage in collective bargaining for wages and salaries for 2015 as the second crop is winding down. Stabroek News was told that a letter to this effect was sent to GuySuCo Chief Industrial Relations Manager Deodat Sukhu today.
GuySuCo is yet to respond to the union’s request to meet by the end of the week to discuss collective bargaining measures. This newspaper was told that given GAWU’s decision to call off the strike to complete the harvest and take advantage of the good weather, the union has a “reasonable expectation,” that GuySuCo will meet this week.
Chand said that they want a resolution. He said the meeting of the GAWU General Council on Saturday was “heavy with pressure…we are not a union that operates top to the bottom…we were under severe pressure from members, that showed the frustration of the workers,” and the decision was made to strike.
According to the union leader, the timing of the strike was deliberate as Sundays were not highly productive work days. However, a message would be sent to the corporation that the union was serious about collective bargaining. “We had to register our protest,” Chand said.
He asserted that the breakdown was due to GuySuCo’s actions and also said that collective bargaining should not be tied directly to the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the sugar sector. Chand pointed out that GuySuCo’s letter to the union on Saturday, which branded the strike illegal, also spoke of the union and corporation’s long and constructive relationship and GAWU does not have any intention of degrading this relationship.
The trade unionist denied that partisan politics played a role in the strike. Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder had accused GAWU of playing politics by striking prior to the findings of the CoI being made public. “The intention was never of the sort, we exercised constraint waiting on them (GuySuCo), since March we submitted our claims,” Chand said.
According to the union head, while workers and the union are “mindful and appreciative” of the production performance, the same high productivity should be used in the negotiations between the two relevant parties. “All the employees of the government got increases,” he argued while adding that sugar workers expected that they would also be heard. In this light, he pointed to the ongoing CoI into the Public Service which he said was enacted after the increase in wages for public sector employees. He declared that collective bargaining is a legal right and has been since its restoration in 1989.
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Meantime, Chand said he was disheartened to read of Holder’s comments as it relates to the pay of sugar workers during the strike. Holder had said that reports reveal sugar workers to be the highest paid in the country.
“He must be able to disclose the number and be able to stand by his number,” Chand asserted. He said that sugar workers’ pay was “far below himself and his colleagues” and the union is fighting for the legal rights of sugar workers. According to him, the minister’s insinuations that sugar workers are the highest paid in the country was not reflective of the CoI nor the commissioners as a collective.
The union head said the minister’s comments were coming from a political place. “You’re coming out of a position where even the current political parties in the government would have campaigned on certain things and would engage workers and the union and now you’re not wanting to engage the union,” he asked.
Yesterday, the factories and fields were quiet as they were since Sunday when the strike began. Stabroek News visited the Enmore and Albion estates yesterday and the only visible signs of work were the security guards and GuySuCo management workers.
