At the 5th Caribbean Regional Conference of international trade unions, 34 delegates joined with Guyana to give solidarity to sugar workers in light of government’s decision to close the Wales Estate on the West Bank of Demerara and to diversify others.
A release from the conference held on Wednesday at the Grand Coastal Inn, stated: “We, the delegates, attending this 5th Caribbean Regional Conference of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Association (IUF)… express our full and unstinted solidarity with the Guyanese sugar workers and their representative organisations during this challenging period.
The delegates, representing Trade Unions in Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Grenada, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, denounced the closure of Wales and condemned the disrespect shown to workers.
The delegates said in the release, “We denounce too the closure of the Wales Estate which has placed livelihoods of many Guyanese at grave risk and urge that the closure decision be withdrawn, even at this late stage.” In January last year, government announced its intention to close the estate via a press release, thus putting over 1,600 workers on the breadline. Ever since, the main sugar union, the Guyana Agricultural & General Workers’ Union (GAWU), along with the other unions, have joined with the workers in pleading with the government to reconsider its decision.
Almost 100 workers from the tillage department received severance pay while a few have opted to work at the Uitvlugt estate on the West Coast of Demerara.
The crop ended in December and while almost 100 workers from the tillage gang have accepted severance pay, GuySuCo is currently in discussions with the others about their future. All of the cane harvesters have been offered jobs at Uitvlugt which means they will have to do significant travelling on a daily basis.
According to the delegates: “We roundly condemn the rollback of workers gains won through long and arduous struggles; the disregard of national laws and agreements; the disrespect shown to long-standing and time-honoured norms, conventions and principles, among the other injustices that have been meted out by the state-owned… GuySuCo in recent times.” The delegates issued a call for GuySuCo and the government as owners of the sugar industry, to ensure that the workers’ rights, conditions and benefits are respected and upheld at all times.
It added: “We must express, as well, our strongest condemnation over plans and proposals that will, in effect, cause further estate closures and sell-out and, if pursued, will see the many thousands of Guyanese facing a most uncertain and bleak future.”
Further, the delegates said they recognized that the sugar industry represents an important pillar of the Guyanese economy and that it plays a manifold role in the society.
They said too that they are aware that the industry is capable of surmounting its present challenges and can play an even more significant role in Guyana.
Reiterating their “fullest solidarity” with the thousands of displaced sugar workers and their unions, they called on the government and GuySuCo to engage in meaningful discussions with the unions with a view to safeguard the sugar industry and to protect jobs.
At an end-of-year press conference, Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder had said that sugar in its present form is no longer viable and that the issues of the Wales estate need a lot of discussion.
He held a special meeting the following day with selected ministers and some members of the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic and GAWU and the sugar union, NAACIE.
Since announcing the closure of sugar operations at Wales in January this year, GuySuCo and Holder’s Ministry have had a year to come up with concrete plans but these are still being awaited.
