The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. is appalled at the disclosure made by the President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Komal Chand, on a recent BBC Caribbean news programme on the damage the current strike can cause to the industry, while laying the blame for lack of finances in the industry on the government.
Following is a GuySuCo statement issued yesterday:
The leader of the largest workers’ union in the sugar industry, in the interview, admitted that both his union and the workers recognize that their current strike action will seriously affect sugar production and went further to disclose that they were well aware of how necessary increased production was to alleviate the present financial circumstances of the industry.
To engage in such a deliberate plan to cripple the industry is both hypocritical and outmoded. The corporation is left pondering how the union and workers expect it will find the necessary resources to sustain its operations and, even more so, offer any wage increase.
Chand in his interview, lashed out at the government and corporation for “having nothing coming forward which is why the workers felt that they at least must engage in some protest”.
Such a statement could only be described as extremely ill-conceived, emotive, and lacking empiric substance as it is already public knowledge that the workers were offered up to 5% in wages and salaries increases once specific targets were met. The corporation even offered to extend the current crop into the New Year to ensure the target was met as it was already confirmed, even by Chand, that enough canes were available. The corporation’s offer was frowned upon by the union, fully aware that the industry was not capable of paying beyond this point, but it still kept demanding more. Now that this ill-advised action was taken, the entire issue of any increase must be revisited and hangs in doubt.
The corporation also wishes to point out that contrary to Chand’s assertions, the government, which is the principal shareholder, has made every effort to assist the industry in overcoming its current challenges. From the first indication of the impending economic challenges internationally and the moves by large nations to protect their markets and industries, it was realized that the direct impact on the relatively small sugar industry in Guyana would be severe and prolonged, hence numerous interventions were made.
In July 2003, the government successfully piloted legislation in the National Assembly to abolish the Sugar Levy Act. During this period, GuySuCo was in arrears to the tune of $2.9B which the Government waived, enabling the industry much needed resources to embark on its plan to modernize its operations in light of the impending challenges.
The administration was also instrumental in arranging concessional financing terms for the establishment of the Skeldon Modernization Project in the largest sugar producing region in the country at a cost of nearly US$200M. It also invested US$12M in the realization of project Gold at Enmore in Region Four to spearhead the industry’s focus towards the more lucrative value added production of its sugar.
The capital expenditure for 2010, which was critical to the industry producing enough canes to push production closer to the 400,000 tonnes mark in the coming years, was only made possible after government provided $4B through a land sale agreement. The administration has also assisted in a number of other areas, such as financing critical drainage and irrigation projects and, most recently, providing material support to aid the industry when its cultivation was under threat during the ‘El Nino’ phenomenon from mid 2009 into this year.
Further, GuySuCo informed the unions that Government was committed to its request for an advance of $2B to urgently address its backlog of creditors. Based on these facts, it is clear that without the intervention and support of the government, the sugar industry would have ceased its operation a few years ago.

SKELDON FACTORY
Based on the admission of the GAWU president, it is clear that all stakeholders, including himself, were fully aware that the industry was heavily dependent on the production of as much sugar as possible. Thus, Chand’s call for a complete closure of the Skeldon factory to address all its technical problems at this point in time is clearly out of tune with reality, unsound, and not an option that makes any sense.
The factory has to be operational to measure the extent of the faults and have these remedied – a process which has been ongoing and which has helped both the contractors and GuySuCo in formulating a programme and timeline for this exercise. It is our expectation that the defects will be corrected by January 2011, with the exception of the number 1 boiler which is scheduled for completion by June 30 next year.
Additionally, between our private cane farmers and the corporation at Skeldon, approximately 229,834 tonnes of canes, equivalent to 18,000 tonnes of sugar, is still to be harvested for this crop.  In fact, Skeldon is the only factory that has been in operation throughout the current strike action by workers. Maybe the union leader was concerned with this aspect when he made the call to shut down the factory.
If this senseless strike action were to continue, it will not only cause harm to the industry and the nation, but to the workers and the unions alike.
We would like to emphasize that the strike action by the union, now partly joined by NAACIE, is in breach of the collective agreement existing between the parties and this has been the case for the over 200 strike activities by the unions throughout this year. The industry can ill afford these unwarranted actions which, on every occasion, resulted in considerable loss in revenue and production to the industry. At this juncture, unlike the previous four years, there are still nearly 900,000 tonnes of canes to be harvested. If they are not harvested on time, considerable loss in sugar will be inflicted on the industry. The time is therefore opportune, regrettably, to review our relations with the unions.
At this critical juncture, the sugar industry needs all the support it can garner to survive this current period as it looks forward to its many investments beginning to generate the desired results and to move it out of its current predicament to a position of financial stability and profitability in the not too distant future.
We therefore call on the union leaders to let good sense prevail and restore normalcy to the industry.