THE mechanical tillage workers of the Wales Sugar Estate who had gone on strike since last Tuesday resumed duties yesterday, as negotiations continue between the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the estate management. GAWU General Secretary Seepaul Narine disclosed this development in a telephone interview with the Guyana Chronicle, and said a meeting arranged by the Chief Labour Officer was held yesterday in this regard, but negotiations were still ongoing with GuySuCo. He said he hoped that the meeting would continue today, however, at the time this publication contacted him for an interview, it had not yet been confirmed that the meeting would continue today.
According to a GAWU press release issued last Friday, the management of Wales Sugar Estate had reportedly forced about 70 workers from the mechanical tillage gang to engage in a strike last Tuesday, May 15, when management “imposed 7.00 am as the starting time for workers to take up work. The workers who are engaged in tilling land would commence working at 6.00am, and whenever the weather restricts tillage, they would normally be assigned work in the precincts of the estate’s compound, also at 6.00 am.”
GAWU said that following this “arbitrary decision” by management, a delegation of workers met with management representatives and were reportedly told that they could either “take it or leave it”. The matter was then reported to the union’s head office, which arranged a meeting with GuySuCo on Wednesday last.
GAWU said that GuySuCo representatives advised its representatives at that meeting to again represent the matter at the estate level because the management was spoken to.
GAWU said it again met with the estate’s management, who insisted that the workers must report to work at 7.00am, and only when tillage work is available would they report from 6.00am. After that meeting, the union said, some workers staged a picketing exercise outside the Wales Estate Administrative Office. Some of their slogans read “Stop arbitrary and dictatorial change”; “We start to work at 6:00 am, not 7:00 am”; “Stop arbitrary change of our working conditions”; and “Down with ‘take it or leave it’ attitude”.
The union said it then referred the matter to the Ministry of Labour, on May 17 last, and Acting Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle met representatives from GAWU and GuySuCo to have the matter resolved. Mr. Ogle recommended that the workers take up work yesterday at 6.30 am, and allow further discussion between the management of the estate and the union.
Following a two-hour session with the union yesterday morning, the estate management reportedly “refused to allow the status quo ante to prevail”.
“The workers decided to continue their protest in the ensuing days,” GAWU stated.
In the meantime, GAWU said, another meeting has been arranged by the Chief Labour Officer for Monday, May 21 at 10:00hrs.
GAWU also noted that in its report which was presented to the union on May 17 last, the Advisory Committee inquiring into the dispute at Blairmont Estate last February concluded that arbitrary changes to long-standing practices by the estate management caused the industrial action, which persisted from February 10, 2012 for 12 days. In the report, GAWU said, the committee recommended “that all customs and practices prior to the strike be reverted to, and management and the union meet and discuss, and agree, on change”.
GAWU holds the view that “the management of Wales Estate and GuySuCo must take heed of the observations made by the Advisory Committee with respect to (arbitrarily) altering working conditions, and changing customs and practices.”