THE Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) has reported that with immediate effect, all operations at the Blairmont Sugar Estate, Region Five, have been halted, with the exception of essential services.
A release issued by the corporation stated that the action was taken since the industrial action which began last Friday has escalated to the point where workers have abandoned their jobs, resulting in 485 punts of cane perishing and denial of work to 850 harvesters for two days.
The release added that the strike is “in blatant violation of the grievance procedure that provides, among others, for dialogue at various levels until a dispute or grievance is resolved…the Corporation cannot condone such reckless behaviour on the part of the workers; as such, it will meet with the union to discuss the gravity of the disruption caused by employees abandoning their jobs and the application of the appropriate sanctions.”
The current strike involves the factory and field workshop workers, who last Friday, on the 2/10 pm shift, downed tools at about 4.30 pm, when the factory was in full operation.
They demanded all income generated from doing piece work be used in the computation of retroactive payment following the job evaluation, and that all delayed payments be done immediately without further delay. The Blairmont workers also demanded that for those who were not satisfied with their current pay grades, those grades must be adjusted to satisfy their demand.
Just before the workers downed tools last Friday, management advised the union representatives and workers in the factory compound that all outstanding payments will be made on Friday, August 31, and that the other two issues are within the purview of discussion between the union and the corporation, centrally, in accordance with the grievance procedure.
Notwithstanding these undertakings, the workers walked off the job during the shift and were joined by workers from the incoming 10/6 pm shift.
Operations were normal on all shifts on Saturday and Sunday.
On Monday, August 27, the entire workforce again downed tools with the same demands made on Friday. A meeting between senior corporate management and executives of the union concluded with an agreement for immediate cessation of the strike; unfortunately, this did not happen, and the strike continued, despite the agreement being reached yesterday.
In addition to the deteriorating quality of the 400 punts of cane, there are 85 more harvested and left in the fields. At this stage, the deterioration in the cane quality has resulted in sugar loss of 100 tonnes that could have yielded $13M in revenue.