JUST days after cane harvesters at Wales Estate took industrial action to protest overworking, which has been resolved, 500 of their contemporaries at the Uitvlugt Estate have downed tools to protest the poor state of the fields and management’s failure to meet their demands.President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), Komal Chand, yesterday confirmed that the 500 cane harvesters have been on strike since Monday. He said, “They are not accepting the additional prices offered to them by the management, which is an effort to compensate the workers for having to work in the field which is overtaken by vines which are affecting the cane growth.”

Chand said the union made this discovery after visiting the field yesterday.

According to Chand, management of the estate has offered per crew an additional hour’s pay — which is equivalent to $4.58 — for an additional five hours. The crews are of two sizes:- three men working to fill one punt, and five men working to fill two punts.
Chand said the workers are calling for an additional 6 to 10 hours’ pay, given that they have to work in unacceptable conditions.

An effort to compensate the workers will be made again today, when members of GAWU and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) meet to brainstorm a solution to satisfactorily address the issue and get the workers back on the job.

The current situation has affected the estate’s ability to reach its set target for this week of 900 tonnes, given that its production figures up to last week stood at 25,846 tonnes of sugar.

A Chronicle news team visited the Uitvlugt Estate yesterday to speak with management, but a hostile security guard barred our personnel from entering the compound and forced them to stand in the sun, as the managers of the estate remained reluctant to speak to this publication.

The guard shouted to this publication: “Y’all can’t come in here! Y’all can’t come in here! Look de manager going there. He say y’all can’t come, in and he ain’t want talk to y’all!”
GuySuCo recently noted that this is the worst strike to have hit the Uitvlugt Estate, and that the cane harvesting gangs are “demanding exorbitant payment for obstacles in the field.”

GuySuCo has said that a field visit was conducted on Monday by both central and local management and central and local union in order to resolve the dispute. “This action by the workers has brought sugar production at that location to a halt. In the meanwhile, the condition of the canes burnt and the fields continue to deteriorate,” GuySuCo noted.

By Navendra Seoraj