– Ramsammy
MINISTER of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has reiterated that one of the ministry’s main goals is to implement strategies that will see the establishment of a harmonious sugar industry, thus reaching the production target for 2012. In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Minister Ramsammy said he is pleased with the mature approach taken by the sugar workers’ union in handling the recent issues in the sector.
While acknowledging that some of the sugar workers concerns have not been eliminated, Ramsammy said most have been addressed and he is satisfied with this.
“I am very happy that we are in a period, right now, where there are no strikes in the sugar industry. We seem to have harmony and it doesn’t mean the concerns of sugar workers have all been eliminated but GuySuCo, the Ministry of Agriculture, the workers and their unions, we have all been working to make sure that we have greater harmony and that the concerns are being addressed,” the minister said,
According to him, many of the concerns are legitimate and, once patience is exercised, all issues will be fine tuned and sorted out in the best interest of the workers and the sugar industry as a whole.
“I want to thank the workers, GuySuCo and the unions for the very mature way in which we are addressing the issues. There is a recognition that the workers have been working in this industry and we need to keep the workers’ management in place so that we can reach our target,” he said.
Ramsammy disclosed that some of the estates have already begun to reach their given targets and pointed out that the workers were given monetary incentives for the exceeding those.
“Last week, for the first time in the first crop, three sugar estate met their targets and the workers earned an extra day pay as an incentive, so Albion exceeded their target yesterday and the workers there earned a bonus pay and the same thing applied to Blairmont and Canje and, this week, I know that the same three estates were on target and reaching their weekly target, they will be receiving annual productive incentive,” he said.

PROGRESSING SMOOTHLY
With plans progressing smoothly, Minster Ramsammy said he is extremely confident that, with the first crop, Guyana’s sugar industry will arrive at its fixed target for 2012, even while there were some challenges that could have created a major setback.
He announced that GuySuCo is working to produce 265,000 tonnes of sugar for 2012 and major disruptions could affect this. However, he assured that, under his leadership and that of other authorities, strategies will be implemented to eliminate the slightest of problems that may arise.
Additionally the minister alluded to the fact that GuySuCo, on March 16, honoured its commitment to pay sugar workers across the country the Annual Production Incentive (API) that was owed to them for last year.
Speaking to this newspaper recently, President of Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Mr. Komal Chand confirmed that the workers received their API and are satisfied.
He said they were in receipt of no less than 7.5 average days’ pay tax free, with the exception of workers on three estates who received more, due to the different classes at those estates.
Early into the grinding season last month, hundreds of workers from several sugar estates staged strike actions in protest of non-payment of the API, among other issues.
Despite these work stoppages, Minister Ramsammy as well as GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Paul Bhim maintained that the 2012 production target is still attainable.