RECONCILIATION talks started on Friday, between the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) have been adjourned to Wednesday.

This was according to the President of GAWU, Mr. Komal Chand, who told the Guyana Chronicle yesterday that the conciliator mediating the talks has requested additional time to review certain elements of the problem.
“We recognise that the conciliator needs time and we are committed to having the matter addressed properly and expeditiously,” Chand said.
The talks were intended 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 (September 19), 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, field and factory workers at Skeldon, Albion and Rose Hall Estates moved to strike action, the latter estates making the move in an expression of solidarity.
Yesterday Chand told this newspaper that GAWU, in a preliminary submission, has called for Daniels’ suspension to be lifted, since GuySuCo did not comply with the requirements of its own disciplinary procedures.
“The conciliator could make a recommendation and then we will move from there,” the GAWU President concluded. (Vanessa Narine)