A NUMBER of cane planters along with Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) officials on Thursday staged a picketing exercise outside the head office of the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo).

The exercise is a continuation of the workers’ protest to dissuade the administration and GuySuCo from closing the estate.
According to a release, it is now five weeks since planters have not been able to work following a decision by the sugar corporation to cease planting at the estate.
“GuySuCo is adamantly, and wrongly, maintaining that the planters must take up cane-cutting tasks. This is a difficult undertaking for many planters given a number of factors. Also, in instances when cane-planting is unavailable, the planters are offered certain other tasks which are currently available on the estate, but are not being offered to the affected workers. Such denial is not in keeping with the agreement between the union and the company and is another disrespect meted out by the corporation to its hard-working employees. The planters are calling on the GuySuCo to provide them with their normal tasks , or to pay them in lieu of the corporation’s denial,” GAWU said.
GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Errol Hanoman, had emphasised that the main focus of the corporation is to harvest as many canes as possible.
He said both male and female workers were encouraged to assist in the harvesting of cane, but some objected.
The women were also asked to weed, but they objected to that too.
Asked whether GuySuCo’s decision to stop fertilising canes at the East Demerara Estate is an indication that the estate will be closed, Hanoman said the future of the industry is in the hands of the Government.