THE Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) on Tuesday continued its anti-estate closure march, this time to Enmore, where it said several persons denounced the planned action by the government to restructure the industry.

The protest march started off in the vicinity of the Enmore sugar factory and wended it way through several streets of Enmore Village and culminated at the Enmore Blossom Scheme Playground–a distance of about two miles, GAWU said in a release. The union said this activity saw the participation of sugar workers, housewives, young people, pensioners, shopkeepers, and others who are staunchly opposed to plans by the Administration and the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) to close Enmore/LBI Estate at year-end.

According to GAWU the march, which lasted well over an hour, steadily grew as it went through the streets, noting that despite the rains, which fell intermittently along the route, the participants were not daunted and continued to press on as the gathering grew. As they moved through the streets they held their placards and banners prominently as they shouted “No to Closure” and at times sang along to Bob Marley’s songs – Get up, Stand up and Who the cap fits – as well as the popular trade union song – Solidarity Forever.

Following the march, the marchers received brief addresses from Enmore/LBI shop steward, Roy Dundas; President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana, Carvil Duncan; Treasurer of the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE), Bhagmat Hochand; GAWU Executive Committee member, Gordon Thomas; GAWU Assistant General Secretary, Aslim Singh, and GAWU President, Komal Chand. All of the speakers congratulated those present for their spirited and well-attended march and encouraged them to continue to put up a strong fight. They urged the relevant authorities to sit up and take note of the growing people’s resistance to the unpopular plans they have in mind.

“This activity, like those before, indicates that the people are in high spirits and are doggedly determined to continue in a sustained way to have the short-sighted and clearly wrong plans on sugar reviewed and recalled. Enmore/LBI Estates, at this time, employs some 2,200 workers and its operations support tens of thousands more. The GAWU was especially pleased to see the participation of non-sugar workers in today’s activities. Their presence, we hold, is prompted by their recognition of the difficulties that will beset the communities linked to Enmore/LBI and as now seen with the painful example of Wales.”

GAWU said “it is disconcerting that closure is being considered at Enmore/LBI, taking into account the investments in recent times. Significant sums were expended to construct the packaging plant through which GuySuCo receives the best prices for its sugar, according to the Sugar Commission of Inquiry (CoI). Furthermore, over the years, GuySuCo spent large sums in field conversion to facilitate mechanized operations. According to our information, Enmore/LBI is the most advanced estate in this regard in Demerara. It is perplexing that closure would be considered in view of the very good possibilities which are generally recognised.”

According to GAWU the workers are calling on the Administration and the GuySuCo to engage the Unions in the sugar industry in meaningful dialogue to address the challenges the industry faces.
“GAWU holds that the three meetings with members of the Government were merely a façade meant to pull the wool over the eyes of the Guyanese people and moreso the sugar workers. We urge that the voices of the working, productive people be heard by those in whose hands are levers of power and to engage in frank discussions to avoid the serious consequences of closure on thousands of our working-people and their families.”

Government recently unveiled its State Paper on sugar, noting that the industry here lies in a smaller sector, with reduced losses and cash deficits but coupled with a separate and profitable diversified enterprise, which would ensure a viable future. Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder, said the ‘State Paper on the Future of the Sugar Industry’, will focus on the poorly-performing estates and have them shift from sugar to diversification. “The proposed courses of action are to amalgamate [merge] Wales Estate with Uitvlugt Estate and reassign its cane to the Uitvlugt factory, since the estate is operating at 50 percent capacity. Sixty percent of its drainage and irrigation infrastructure is in a dilapidated condition. The corporation furthermore seeks to divest itself of the Skeldon Estate. The estates of Albion and Rose Hall are to be amalgamated and the factory at Rose Hall is to be closed.”

Holder said GuySuCo would then consist of three estates and three sugar factories. The estates would be Blairmont on the West Bank Berbice, Albion-Rose Hall in East Berbice and the Uitvlugt-Wales estate in West Demerara. The three estates will be complete with factories and will have cane supplied from all five locations. By virtue of the amalgamation, the Enmore, East Coast Demerara (ECD) and Rose Hall, Berbice factories will be closed by year-end. In the case of Enmore, that factory will be closed at the end of the year when all cane would have been harvested and the East Coast Estates would be earmarked for diversification.

“The process will result in improving the relationship with some cane cutters, estate staff and about 1,710 private cane farmers. These adjustments mean that GuySuCo would be scaled-down into a more efficient entity that focuses on producing sugar to satisfy the domestic and foreign markets that provide preferential access to our sugar. This entails taking advantage of the opportunity to merge better performing lands to operate factories more efficiently,” Holder said.

But even as there will be a major restructuring of the industry, GuySuCo is required to retain many of its workers for all operations on the merged estates or factories and those employees are to receive leased lands from the sugar company to engage in crops to be decided by both GuySuCo and the Ministry of Agriculture. Additionally, the Minister said GuySuCo plans, apart from restructuring the estates and factories, to transfer to the state charges for the drainage and irrigation and health services that it provides to the communities, and around the estates.