orkers at the Skeldon Sugar Factory went on strike yesterday over the dismissal of their colleagues following investigation into a fire at the factory which resulted in extensive damage and for which the cost of remedial work will run into millions.
In a statement yesterday GuySuCo urged that the workers return to work so that management could address their union to address their concerns.
Here is the GuySuCo statement:
On August 7th 2010, a fire in the Skeldon Factory resulted in extensive damage to the bagasse conveyor belt.
This incident occurred on the said day the Skeldon Estate was slated to commence production for its 2nd crop of 2010. Based on the extent of the damage, it is clear that the blaze started much earlier than the time it was first reported, which was 3:00hrs of the said day.
A full investigation was conducted which revealed that the incident resulted because of gross negligence, caused extensive damage where remedial work will cost millions of dollars, coupled with the loss of three days production.
As a result, disciplinary action was taken against employees, both managerial and non-managerial:

*        Two senior employees were interdicted from duty.

*        Two senior employees were disciplined, one was dismissed and the other suspended.

*        Two non-managerial employees were suspended and three non-managerial employees were dismissed.

Following this action, on Tuesday August 17th 2010, factory workers decided to engage in strike against the decision to dismiss their colleagues.
The strike action by the factory workers is at a most inopportune time, when there is a very large crop (480,000 tonnes of canes) to be harvested which has already been affected by poor weather and a second crop production target of 34,000 tonnes of sugar for the Skeldon factory.
Management respects the procedure of engaging workers in keeping with the established principles of the grievance procedure and as such management is willing to do same, providing that there is a resumption of work.
It must be noted that at this point in time, over 650 punts of cane are in a state of readiness for crushing which will yield approximately 4,000 tonnes of sugar.
The Corporation once again reaffirms its call for workers to ensure they seek to solve their concerns through dialogue with officials before resorting to strike action, so as to ensure that critical opportunity days for harvesting and production are not lost, more so because of the current weather pattern and the significant amount of canes to be harvested across the industry.