EMPLOYEES of the Blairmont Sugar Estate have resorted to industrial action with the hope of getting an increase in their wages and salaries.
According to a press statement from the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), the workers want the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to approve a 15 per cent increase which was being considered for some time.

GAWU said the workers were upset to know that they remain the only group of state workers to not receive any improvement in pay since 2015. The employees, representing a large percentage of the field and factory workers, picketed outside the estate’s administration office, calling for pay raises which they claimed have been owed to them for three years.

“The GAWU is at a lost why sugar workers, it seems, have been singled out for such unwarranted and unnecessary treatment,” the union noted in a statement.
Workers picketed one day after Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan read the proposed National Budget for 2019 in the National Assembly. According to the minister, with GuySuCo now charged with managing the operations of three estates, the viability of the sugar industry has been given a new opportunity with restructured cost profiles.

The ongoing recapitalisation of the Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt Estates, as part of the Sugar Task Force three-year plan for GuySuCo, is anticipated to result in production in future years rising from a low of 98,000 tonnes by the end of 2018, to nearly 145,000 tonnes by 2021. Sugar production is also projected to increase to 113,262 metric tonnes, in 2019.

“The Guyana Sugar Corporation will continue to introduce cost-reducing measures, explore lucrative markets and marketing strategies, and undertake critical capital works. Sugar production is projected to increase to 113,262 metric tonnes, in 2019,” said Minister Jordan, adding that the world market price of sugar is expected to increase marginally to US$0.27 per kilogramme at the end of this year and US$0.28 per kilogramme in 2019.