GAWU wants immediate start to wage talks with GuySuCo -as major dispute surrounds API, sugar workers’ benefits

THE sugar workers’ union GAWU is once more at odds with the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) regarding benefits for workers and wants negotiations to begin immediately.GuySuCo said that it was always its intention to meet and address the matter of Annual Production Incentives (APIs) for workers, but GAWU said this intention was not conveyed until last Thursday, when it was invited to have discussions on several issues.
The union claimed that it has been asking, since March of this year, to be engaged in wages negotiations.
However, “it is already mid-November and all we are hearing is discussions on wages must await the government’s discussion on the report of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI).”
GAWU maintained that the corporation is in violation of the Recognition and Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes Agreement and the Trade Union Recognition Act (TURA) and with regard to wages, the union maintains that the corporation is not living up to the Collective Bargaining process.
GAWU said it was surprised that the corporation would deduce statements by its President Komal Chand as pointing to a threat of industrial action, come 2016.
“This is rather surprising as GuySuCo should know that over the centuries generations of sugar workers had to struggle for every worthwhile benefit they enjoy and which, so often, are threatened by little bosses necessitating further struggles in the defence of such gains,” GAWU stated.
According to the union, one cannot condemn workers and their representatives for standing up for their rights and a just cause.
“Indeed, such struggles should be applauded as the accruing benefits often go beyond the sugar industry.
“GuySuCo needs to be reminded that for the past 26-years, sugar workers have received increases in pay every year.
“It is to be expected that they will actively demand that 2015 does not become a year of exception,” GAWU stated.
GAWU believes that the sugar workers have behaved responsibly in the circumstances.
“For most of them, they do back-breaking work and toil in arduous conditions. They are not decision-makers or belonging to management and working in cushy environments, nor are they the owners of the industry.
“They are simply workers who expend their labour-power and expect a fair compensation for their work,” GAWU stated.
Ina recent statement, the government said it is seeking to put a Ten-Year Road Map and Action Plan in place, aimed at returning the industry to viability.
“It would therefore be ill- advised and indeed premature to commence wages talks before this plan is considered.
“Unions that seek to drag the sugar corporation to the table to do so are obviously pursuing a political agenda, which unfortunately is not in the interest of sugar workers,” the government statement noted.
The government has had to bail out the industry with $28 billion in the last five years alone and now with its debt load of $82 billion and an expected $5 billion needed for capital investment together with anticipated further bailout in 2016, “any strike action in the industry would bring sugar finally to its knees,” the government stated.

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