SUGAR workers have returned to the fields following two days of strike action in pursuit of higher salaries and better working conditions.During a telephone interview with the Guyana Chronicle, President of the Guyana Agriculture and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), Komal Chand, indicated that the workers have turned out to work in full. “The workers returned to work since Tuesday following a full day of protest on Monday, which led to GuySuCo agreeing to meet with us,” said the union President.
According to Chand, a delegation from the GAWU met on Wednesday with the sugar corporation to commence discussions on a number of issues affecting workers.
He indicated that the union had met with GuySuCo last week, when they proposed that an eight percent salary increase be granted. However, this had to be reviewed and further deliberated on by the parties involved. GAWU said earlier this week that: “The workers have rightly pointed out that unlike other state workers, who have benefited and will benefit from pay rises in 2015 and 2016, though those increases fell below their expectations, the sugar workers have been excluded and are seemingly being deemed as ‘second-class citizens.”
However, GuySuCo in a statement contended that for many years, one of the areas that have been impacting negatively on the business of sugar is strike action. “During the last 10 years, strike action ranged between 160 in 2005 to 250 in 2010, and fluctuated slightly during that period. For six years, the numbers were above 200 annually, and in 2014 and 2015 there was a slight reduction,” the corporation said. It added that from 2005 to 2015, the total man-days lost to strikes were 813,437, and the highest man-days lost for this period was in 2009 with 130, 171 in 2006 and the lowest being 32,064 in 2014.