– everything back to normal

– Komal Chand

ALL the field and factory workers who were involved in the sugar industry’s most recent strike action have returned to work, according to President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Mr. Komal Chand.

“All the workers of the estates that were part of the strike have returned to work. Everything is back to normal,” he said.
Chand added that the reconciliation talks scheduled for today will proceed as scheduled, to address the problem at the Skeldon Estate, which led to the strike.
The GAWU President, in an earlier comment, had explained that the strike stemmed from an alleged altercation between Estate Manager, Mr. Dave Kumar and Daniels, a worker at the Skeldon sugar estate.
He said the report he received is that last Friday, at around 11:30pm, the estate manager, who had allegedly been consuming alcohol, was on his way to the Dock Mill, where a cane harvest had been offloading. Before he reached there, he met several workers and reportedly asked them to move. The allegation is that all the workers did not remove immediately and the estate manger became incensed.
“The report we have is that the worker was verbally abused, he was cursed at, and there was a scuffle where the estate manger allegedly attempted to hit him,” Chand had said.
He added that the worker continued working, but was later informed that he was fired and escorted off the premises by the estate’s security personnel.
As a result, workers moved to strike action. In addition to Skeldon, field and factory workers at Albion and Rose Hall also participated in the strike action.
Subsequently, the Terms of Resumption (TOR) agreed to by the Union and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) stated that: “The strike by field and factory workers attached to Skeldon and Rose Hall that were ongoing as of Wednesday will end; the Union will ensure full resumption of duties by field and factory workers from yesterday; within 24-hours, after resumption of duties, the aggrieved parties, including GAWU, will meet with the Chief Labour Officer, who will make a final decision on the matter; there will be no victimization on either side because of strike actions; all workers who were on strike will not have their ‘strike day’ counted as absent, but as days not available for work; and the dismissal of the Skeldon factory employee, Mr. Steven Daniels, will be now treated as a suspension, without pay, until the end of the reconciliation talks.”
Additionally, Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, told the Guyana Chronicle that he is happy that a compromise was reached and the workers have resumed duties.
“We will continue to have disagreements, but we have to learn to speak to each other and resolve out problems, as expeditiously as possible. This way the first resort will not be strike action,” he said.

CATCHING UP
Asked about the impact of the strike action on the sector’s production for the second crop, the Minister stated that the estates will be working on catching up to their targets.
“I am still confident we will meet our target,” Dr. Ramsammy said.
The first crop was successful, surpassing the 75,000 tonnes target, bringing in about 80,000 tonnes. The overall target for 2014 has been moved from 216,000 tonnes to 219,000 tonnes. Sugar production came in at a dismal 186,500 tonnes for 2013, but Guyana has been taking steps to turn around the sugar industry and hopes to meet the 300,000 tonnes target soon, with a projection that the sector will reach its 400,000 tonne goal by 2020.

(Vanessa Narine)