Dear Editor,

PLEASE permit me once more to share my sentiments to the various missives in your newspaper on the sugar industry and its future. As I have written many times before on this and will say again, that Guysuco needs to act and act now or face the consequences.

I have said and will continue to say that Guysuco needs to cut the benefits being given to the managers in this crippling industry. The corporation cannot sustain its operation but yet treat managers as if they are grinding the cane and producing the sugar.

What is so hard to cut those benefits from the managers?. But it seems that Guysuco is bigger than the companies in the U.S., which was running at a loss and had to cut staff and salaries, all because they were not making a profit. Guysuco behaves as if they are making a profit, so they are entitled to give the managers those benefits as the profit rises. HELL NO.

The taxpayers are the ones that are feeling the burden of it all. Billions and I say BILLIONS of taxpayers’ dollars are going down the drain because Guysuco has been going down the drain for years.

In response to my letter that was published on the14th October, 2016 in the Kaieteur News, a senior official of Guysuco had the guts to reply in favour of the managers’ benefits and more over justify why they deserve such on the 18th October, 2016.

The writer Audreyanna Thomas, who writes on behalf of Guysuco, admits that things were not done how they were supposed to be done in the corporation over the past years, meaning when the PPP was in power. She also admits that there is a lot of evidence to prove that there was mismanagement in Guysuco over those years. She admits a lot of things were done to hamper Guysuco in the past. In my view, all that was done by the PPP to ensure that they maintained the sugar workers as their supporters by blinding them about the truth of the sugar industry and where it is heading. So Guysuco was mismanaged over the years that the PPP was in power, period.

But what stunts me, is when the writer went on to say that “Guysuco wishes to state that the Estate Managers are the real heroes in the corporation”. This is total nonsense, because real heroes won’t want to suck the sweat of the sugar workers. Sugar workers are the heroes, they are the ones that ensure that there is cane to produce sugar not the big paid managers that suck the workers’ blood for their benefits that they are enjoying. Mostly many of them are pensioners.

She said that “Estate Managers are required to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week”. Well, Guysuco is losing it because lots of workers in Guyana work around the clock and seven days a week without those benefits. Take a look at the police, the fire service, the doctors, the ambulance drivers and many others that are working to ensure that their entities’ mandates and duties are being fulfilled. Some of those workers hardly take home 50% of Guysuco managers’ salaries or benefits. So it’s nonsense to say they are heroes. Maybe the PPP made them Mismanagement Heroes and they are still there today as such for the PPP.

Guysuco is almost 89 BILLION DOLLARS in debt, but yet management does not want to cut the benefits of its managers. What a shame to see that although the industry is at the edge, management is playing a vital role and part of ensuring it is overboard.

Why would any manager of a failing corporation wants to maintain those benefits?. So, I want to say to Guysuco this, “Don’t fly high when the jet is almost in the grave”. Cut the managers benefits now or else there will be less days for them to work and earn for their families. If the managers are the real heroes as Guysuco is claiming, let all the managers give up one month of their salary and benefits for the workers. By doing this they can be deemed heroes. I am sure that none of them would want to.

GAWU has contributed to the falling of the sugar industry. Over the past two years GAWU has called almost 300 strikes for political gains, not for workers’ benefits. GAWU over the past two decades never fought the fight for sugar workers. Why would they do that now?. You be the judges as to what is the aim of this thing called GAWU.

NAACIE General Secretary Mr. Kenneth Joseph in a missive to kaietuer news dated 19th October, 2016 admits that Guysuco is at the edge with his letter under the caption, “NAACIE Says That Sugar Is At The Cross Roads”. But yet the union that represents the sugar workers in the field finds it hard to say the truth.

The truth is that if GAWU is to tell the workers the TRUTH, then the PPP would lose many supporters. Because the PPP’s dictator leader Bharrat Jadgeo admits that the PPP must take blame for the state of the sugar industry, Kaieteur news 21st October, 2016.

The PPP has failed the sugar workers and today wants to play as if they care. Over the years of the PPP, they took away several benefits from the workers. They closed down estates without consultations. They managed GAWU from Freedom House and tells the union what to do.

Why over the 23 years rule of the PPP, they did not give workers raise of pay as they deserved when the industry was doing well? Today, the PPP is saying that the workers deserve raise of pay. What a surprise from the dictators of the PPP?. I call on the PPP’s former Presidents, Ministers and MPs, give up one month of your salaries and benefits for the workers’ cause.

I agree that sugar workers deserve better wages. Where will the money come from?. Will the government continue to use the taxpayers’ money to ensure that this industry eats out its resources? The government must now come out and face the workers and tell them about the state of the industry. Where it is going?. How long will they continue to give those huge sums of money to bail out the industry?.

The Minister of Agriculture needs to come out and face the workers in village meetings and stop being in office. It is high time that workers know what’s happening. It is time for us to face the workers and tell them where the industry was when APNU+AFC came into government.

I know that His Excellency is trying his best to ensure that all is being done for the sugar workers, so that they can have the good life. I call on His Excellency, the Prime Minister and the Minister of State to ensure that face the sugar workers village meetings be put in place, so that workers can be educated on what’s happening.

Brothers and sisters in the industry, you need to understand that the industry is going and must try to help the government to bring some sort of solution for the future. Sit and think of what form of diversification will benefit you and your families for a better future. Not all is lost, let’s work together for a brighter future through diversification.

Guysuco is at the edge, waiting to fall overboard into the pit.

Abel Seetaram
APNU+AFC
Regional Councilor
Region Five.