WORKERS attached to the Enmore Sugar Estate on Monday morning staged a four-mile march, citing “indications” that closure of the estate has begun.

For weeks, the workers and their union, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) have contended that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuco) and government are making moves to close the estate. At the same time, government has not made a formal decision as regards the future of the estate.

In a release issued on Monday, GAWU said that a large contingent of East Demerara Estate workers, a combination of both La Bonne Intention (LBI) and Enmore estates, accompanied by residents, marched through Enmore and along the Railway Embankment to the community of Enterprise, a four-mile stretch.

GAWU said that the march was intended to call attention to the plight of the workers and to express “strong opposition” to the closure of East Demerara Estate.

The union said that there are indications that the closure process has begun.” For some weeks now, cane planting at the Estate has been stopped, which portends that no plans are being made for crops beyond this year,” the union said.

According to the union 2,222 employees work at the Enmore estate, which is currently a major source of employment and plays a significant role in maintaining the rural economy of many communities throughout the East Coast of Demerara.

The union said that the perceived closure of the estate is “being done without any assessment of the social and economic consequences that would attend to the sad decision.” In addition, the union noted that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advised the government that such an assessment is an essential element in addressing the industry’s future.

GAWU contends that while government and the management of GuySuco has identified the implementation of non-sugar ventures, such as orchard crops, legumes, rice, livestock, dairy cattle and aquaculture to replace sugar, such ventures have not started at the now-closed Wales sugar estate.
“There is no need to divert lands away from sugar cultivation”, the union said, noting that the East Demerara Estate, which is comprised of the Enmore and La Bonne Intention (LBI), occupies important places in the sugar industry.

According to GAWU, the industry is more than capable of overcoming its present difficulties.

Over the years, government has made several interventions to ensure the survival of the cash-strapped GuySuco.

As recent as last week, a $1B bailout was approved by the government to ensure payments were made to sugar workers, who were planning to protest over the non-payment of wages.