GAWU betrayed sugar workers for 23 years

Dear Editor
I AM very impressed with GAWU’s recent reply to a letter that was published in Guyana Chronicle’s letter column dated May 22, 2017, under the heading, ” GAWU says Seetaram’s letter an attack on the people.”
GAWU was trying to reply to my letter that was published in the said newspaper dated May 19, 2017, under the caption, “GAWU, PPP using schoolchildren during protest.” I was writing about the PPP-led organised protest that was held in Canje, Region Six.

What impressed me is that GAWU is claiming that the union was very disturbed to read my letter. I know that everyone in GAWU and the PPP will be upset because it is the truth. Those two entities never like to hear the truth, since their aim and agenda are to spread lies about what’s taking place in the sugar belt. So, I am proud that the truth is now disturbing the union.

At no time nor in any line in my letter did I attack the people. I did not reprimand the young man for taking part in the protest. What I did was to tell GAWU and PPP to stop using our children for their own selfish political gains. That’s all I did say to the union and its partner. Neither did I fail to say the truth about what’s happening in the sugar industry and who caused this situation to come upon the workers and their families.
I am no cheerleader for the government, but steps need to be taken if the sugar industry is to survive. GAWU must understand that closing a few estates does not mean that the sugar industry will be closing down.

That is what GAWU is telling the workers; they are fooling them so as to gain their ways into the hearts of the workers. I can’t see why joining a protest will make a bankrupted industry survive? So when GAWU talks of people joining the protest, they must tell the nation, what they have been peddling that caused the people to be afraid and join the protest? GAWU needs to come clean with the workers, tell the truth of the situation and what triggered the positive move to save the industry by this government.

GAWU mentioned in their letter that they respect the workers. Well, it took them 23 years to realise that they did not respect the workers and their rights. For 23 years under the PPP, GAWU disrespected workers’ rights. For 23 years GAWU allowed workers’ rights to go away and have their representatives do what they wanted to workers. If GAWU was respecting the rights of workers, they would have never had closed-door negotiations with the PPP and GuySuco for 23 years without the workers’ inputs. They would not have allowed NIS to rip off the contributions of workers.

GAWU does not need to remind me of the closure of the estates (Diamond and LBI) under the PPP, which they agreed to. GAWU could have represented those workers at the time who lost their jobs and incomes. GAWU should have ensured that those workers’ welfare was looked after, rather than to throw the workers’ rights away. During that closure, workers were transferred to other estates. Today this same GAWU does not want workers to be transferred, because it’s an APNU+AFC Government.
What is wrong now if the workers have to be transferred to other estates? But in the PPP’s days, GAWU encouraged the closure of those estates and neglected the rights of the workers that paid them from their sweat and hard-earned cash. Today the song of this union is different.

I am not bothered by the workers and their families’ resistance, they have the right to protest. What I am bothered about is the way GAWU and the PPP are lying to the workers and their families for political gains. I am bothered by the misinformation that GAWU is peddling to the workers that are making their lives become miserable. This union does not care what happens to the workers and their families’ mental health, all they care about is power in the political arena again.

I Don’t have to lobby anyone, we all know that the sugar industry is in deep crisis and cannot find its way back if all the estates keep operating. Mr Editor, it amazes me the way GAWU deals with my letter, they did not say anything to defend what I wrote, but in their barefacedness want to confront me. Please allow me to remind GAWU as to what I mentioned in my last letter, so that they reply to. In this way we maybe know the truth.

They did not tell the workers and protesters that they are the ones who ensured that sugar workers suffer. They never told the protesters that under the PPP they had plans to close the industry, but were afraid because of their political future if that was to be done. They never told the workers that GAWU sold out their rights while the PPP was in power. They never told the workers about the estates they closed and that many had lost their jobs and livelihoods.
It is a shame to see the nasty and dirty work that the PPP and GAWU officials are doing.

They are back to operation destroy Guyana if we can’t get power. All that the PPP wants is power. I will say this: as long as a country is on its way towards betterment and an opposition political party wants power, they will organise mass protests and strikes.

Regards
Abel Seetaram

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