Strike action by factory workers at the Uitvlugt estate yesterday forced the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to implement an emergency plan to save approximately $32 million in sugarcane.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sasenarine Singh yesterday told Stabroek News that having recognised the consequences the strike action would have on production, they moved to call out experts from the Rose Hall and Blairmont Estates as well as senior managers to engage in sugar grinding work.
This move, he explained, allowed the estate which started early grinding for the second crop to save sugarcane that was ready to be crushed.
“The estate management, GuySuCo, and the union, had met and agreed to start grinding today. About 300 workers turned out but workers from the factory came out to protest, putting the harvested cane at risk. We had to avert that and call out experts in the industry to man the machinery and used the senior managers at the estate and even head office to overlook the production,” Singh yesterday explained when contacted by this newspaper.
Some two hundred and twenty-three punts filled with sugarcane were in dock as of Monday, ready to be processed for grinding.
The factory workers from the Uitvlugt estate yesterday morning downed their tools in a call for the corporation to honour holiday-with-pay (HWP) commitments, the workers’ union, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), said in a statement.
According to Singh, had they allowed the sugar to remain in the punts until workers’ demands were met, the corporation would have suffered heavy losses. He explained that harvested cane is required to be at the factory within 48 hours otherwise the sucrose content from the sugarcane will decline resulting in poor output.
The swift intervention by the sugar producers has resulted in production of sugar equivalent to 2,000 bags, Singh informed.
Meanwhile, GAWU in a statement yesterday said employees staged a picketing exercise outside of the estate calling for GuySuCo to meet their obligations.
The union explained that the HWP is paid to workers in lieu of annual leave and provided at end of each crop to qualified workers.
They argued that the 2022 first crop at Uitvlugt was truncated arising from issues within the factory, however, workers continued to work and were qualified to receive their entitlements which is in keeping with the Collective Labour Agreement between GAWU and GuySuCo.
In light of the strike, GuySuCo’s industrial relations team and the union yesterday met and have agreed to continue discussions on the way forward. Workers are expected to return to their jobs today.
GAWU in its statement said the estate is contending that the workers are not entitled to the HWP payments.
“At the same time, other sections of the employees continue to receive their full annual leave entitlements. For the workers, this is disturbing as they all benefitted similarly from the support of the Government,” the union argued, before moving to point out that previously the workers had indicated that the management had informed them that certain computations were being undertaken towards addressing the payments. Without any forewarning, the corporation changed its position and only offered HWP to workers engaged in planting.
The workers, GAWU said, became more upset after the corporation’s CEO entered the estate compound without seeking to ascertain the reason for the workers’ picketing exercise.
They said they felt disrespected that the CEO who had previously professed his commitment to the workers, could not have even asked what their difficulty was.
The corporation in a separate statement expressed grave concern over the strike action and called on workers to help achieve the targets for the crop.
Responding directly to the rationale behind the industrial action, GuySuCo in their statement said management had earlier addressed this issue at a meeting held on May 31, 2022, with GAWU’s union representative attached to the estate.
“At that meeting, the Estate Manager informed the Union Representatives that for HWP to be facilitated, a factor will have to be established which requires at least one week of grinding,” the statement said.
The corporation expressed its disappointment that the factory workers decided to proceed on strike on the day of the commencement of the second crop.
“The estate is fully ready to commence grinding operations for the Second Crop, in pursuit of a sugar production target of 10,800 metric tonnes… this strike action by the factory workers does not augur well for the estate and the corporation.”
It was pointed out that with the Albion and Blairmont estates expected to commence grinding operations in two weeks, it is paramount that Uitvlugt lives up to production expectations in order for the corporation to meet the local market demand.
Sugar on the local market
The CEO went on to state that within two weeks packaged sugar will return to the shelves of shops and supermarkets across the country. The last of the packaged sugar under the Enmore Crystals brand was sold to Survival Supermarket yesterday.
He nonetheless added that the corporation has in stock, bulk sugar available for Guyanese manufacturers.
Additionally, Singh pointed out that with just 14 hours of production for the first crop of this year, this second crop is “sensitive” for the Uitvlugt estate. He added that the estate will have to work towards meeting its target by harvesting cane from the first and second crops.
“They will have to work to consolidate canes that were ready for the first crop and what are now available for the second crop. This will be imperative to advance the crop for the estate to meet its targets.”
Last week the corporation reported that months after the estate was unable to engage in sugar grinding due to a broken turbine gear, it was replaced and successfully installed. This paved the way for the early commencement of the second crop.
In a brief post on its Facebook page, GuySuCo informed that the estate’s mechanical team had completed the installation of the new gearbox and conducted steam trials.
Since March of this year, the estate’s factory had been shut as a result of being unable to rectify mechanical issues. This meant that for the first crop, from a target of 4,000 tonnes, the estate was only able to produce a mere 66 tonnes.
Uitvlugt estate had been given the target of producing at least 25 per cent of the sugar expected from this crop.
When the turbine gear broke, the factory halted operations. Estate Manager, Yudhisthira Mana, had said that US-based Nexus Engineering was commissioned to fabricate parts to replace the broken turbine gearbox.
A source had previously told this newspaper that the gear had to be replaced but sourcing its replacement proved a challenge since the part was manufactured decades ago and the manufacturer has since gone out of business.
According to Mana, “The part that was damaged in the factory is one that is over 50 years old. It is one that normally don’t be on ordering and safe keep because [it has] rarely been damaged, and so to say just have one on standby to replace, we don’t normally have that.”
The estate manager disclosed that Nexus Engineering had to engage in reverse engineering to construct the spare part since there was no blueprint to guide the fabrication.
