— to be part of re-organisation of GuySuCo

ANOTHER invitation to be part of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) decision-making process has been extended to the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) by the sugar company.

GuySuCo Chairman, Professor Clive Thomas told Guyana Chronicle that despite having the right to sit on the GuySuCo’s board to be a part of the decision-making process as the workers’ representative, GAWU has failed to do so.

He said it is not courtesy that GAWU be given a seat on GuySuCo’s board, but they have a right as a stakeholder to be part of the process.

“They should be a part of the board and the management. We opened our arms to them. If they want to join the process, we are willing to have them. There is no hostility.”

Thomas however believes that GAWU is not interested in working with the corporation.

“They don’t want to exercise their rights because they want the best of both worlds; to stay outside and criticise but not to be part of the decision-making. The only way they can do that is not to be part of the management or the decision- making process.”

GAWU President Komal Chand is a long-standing member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and is an opposition parliamentarian.

The PPP has heavily criticised the move to make sugar workers redundant.
And although the party had been in Government more than two decades, it had not addressed the woes facing the loss-making entity.

“They (PPP) are glad to shift the burden of what they should have been doing to this Government. They are crying crocodile tears. They would have wanted to do this, but didn’t have the courage to do it because they wanted the votes. But we have to think about the future of the country,” Professor Thomas related.

GuySuCo’s CEO Errol Hanoman had told the newspaper that in 2015, there was no option remaining for GuySuCo as the entire company was on the verge of collapse and the threat of an industry wipe out existed.

It was found that of about eight estates only three could remain if GuySuCo is to return to some point of viability.

In the process, some four thousand workers would have to go home and that re-organisation strategy is currently in motion.

Professor Thomas insisted that one harsh reality that must be kept in mind is that considering all expenses, sugar is being produced at 45 cents per pound and selling at 15 cents.

“Whom do you think we are subsiding? The people who buy the sugar. Europeans, Americans; and Guyana cannot afford to do that. You can’t do that and call it a solution to help the people of Guyana.

“It takes political courage, some amount of will if you want to make a decision and restructure and stick to it. Not every time you run into a problem you will put your hands in the air and say ‘oh God’. If we do not do this, the situation will be worst, next year, two years, three years from now…”

Apart from offering alternative livelihoods for redundant workers, the company said the staff will receive their severance pay before December 31.