THERE has been full resumption of work at Skeldon Sugar Estate while management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) and Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the National Association of Agricultural, Clerical, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) are engaged in discussions in keeping with collective labour grievance procedure.
These talks are currently ongoing and it is hoped that there will be a speedy resolution of the outstanding issues
GUYSUCO had urged workers on strike at Skeldon Sugar Factory to return to work after they went on strike when their colleagues were dismissed or suspended in connection with a bagasse belt that was burnt allegedly due to negligence of the workers that were dismissed. According to the General Manager of Skeldon Sugar Estate, Mr. Vishnu Panday, the bagasse belt had been fixed two days later after the unfortunate fire that took place.
“The Guyana Skeldon Sugar Estate has gone back to normalcy and workers have resumed their duties while production continues. The union and GUYSUCO exchanged a discussion. It was the negligence of people in charge that resulted in suspension and dismissal that caused the factory workers to go on strike,” Mr. Panday charged.
He told the media on Tuesday that there have been poor prevailing weather conditions, since it is quite evident that the effects of climate change are being felt across the world resulting to more disastrous situations like monsoons and mudslides etc. killing thousands of people.
Panday noted that we are so far fortunate not to have something so serious to affect us but we are unsure about the rising sea level and what it could do in the future.  He said though that the climate change has definitely hampered production by the prevailing wet weather conditions where Skeldon highly depends on machinery to do harvesting. “The production peak will rise once weather conditions improve which will most likely occur as soon as possible in the future,” Panday said
In response to an enquiry by the media whether cane cutters have a feeling of no longer being an essential part of this sugar factory since the new machinery came in and that they would have to leave the job, the General Manager said that the new and improved mechanism that they are currently working with to assist in sugar production cannot displace people. It doesn’t have a negative impact on the work force because the factory still has to be managed with labourers who are doing a good job. He also mentioned to that there is still a shortage of skilled persons and mechanisms at the new factory and being employed at the Skeldon Sugar Estate requires a high level of skill.