OVER the weekend the balance in severance payment that was owed to the sugar workers who lost their jobs as a result of the closure of some estates, was paid. The Coalition Government has kept its promise and made payment amounting to just under $5,000,000,000.00 (five billion dollars) together with interests calculated at another $85,000,000.00 (eighty-five million dollars).

On Friday last, when my staff raised a toast to me, I remarked that payment of redundancy benefit to sugar workers was my best birthday gift. I recalled how our Coalition Government could not find $5 billion in a lump-sum earlier this year but managed to scrape up one-half of the payment. Those workers who were entitled to $500,000.00 and less were given full payment, and the others one-half, with a promise to pay the balance by the end of the year.

CRIPPLED SUGAR ESTATES
Severance payment was a GuySuCo obligation, but the state’s sugar corporation was grounded into bankruptcy under the previous (PPP/C) government, with a debt of $85 billion. That regime left us with badly-managed and crippled sugar estates that could not earn enough to pay weekly wages to sugar workers.

That government started the cash bailout of GuySuCo, with a limited interest in ensuring that the industry was milked to pay union dues, and in keeping the sugar belt as a PPP ethnic-based, voting machine.
Our Coalition Government, just elected into office, had inherited that burden and so, whilst there were other critical areas that badly needed money, we took the tough decision, time and again, to bail out the sugar industry. We doled out some $37,000,000,000.00 (thirty-seven billion dollars) in bailout sums.

The decision to close four estates was done to save the sugar industry from total collapse, and to keep the job of some 10,000 workers. Since then, a $30,000,000,000.00 (thirty billion dollars) bank loan, which the Coalition Government has guaranteed, was raised to upgrade and modernize the remaining grinding factories. These now have prospects of success.

I have been writing this over and over because I feel strongly that sugar workers must understand the root of the problem, as well as the efforts by our government to find a solution that was least painful. They must be reminded that the previous regime had tried to fix sugar, but failed. It had rolled out successive “turn-around plans”, but instead only succeeded politically in turning the industry upside down.

SQUARE PEGS
They not only put what the Guyanese people knew were “square pegs in round holes”, but threw away some $50,000,000,000.00 (fifty billion dollars) on the Skeldon factory to produce more sugar at less cost. The then president had said that without Skeldon, “sugar is dead”. Well, Skeldon never came on stream and has remained a white elephant since. So now, the sugar workers know who to blame!

Earlier this year, sugar was a big lump in my heart and had driven me to a near-death experience. But, as I look back, I can say for sure that the decision to sever some estates was a sensible one, and the three factories that remain, like my triple-heart surgery has done for me, have been given a new lease on life.

I have seen also comments from sugar workers who have accepted their severance with gratitude. Some have already joined the work force at Albion, Blairmont and Uivtlugt estates. Some others have taken up employment with the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) right in the sugar belt; others as security personnel and staff at medical and sports facilities that have been absorbed by the state.

GLOOM AND DOOM PROPAGANDA
They did not succumb to the gloom and doom propaganda. They are talking up that they wished that they had left the sugar industry earlier; that they have invested their severance in small businesses, and that they have moved on with their lives.

I have seen reports of children of sugar workers being trained, and even employed, to do on-shore work for oil and gas-related business. The first batch of our girls has been inducted into the ranks of the petroleum cadets. Some have been selected for graduate, degree programmes in foreign countries such as the People’s Republic of China and Mexico. Children of sugar workers have enlisted in information communication technology (ICT) work and on-site training at several call-centres.

At the time of writing, I am aware that bids for divestment of sugar estates are being processed, and opportunities would be opened for employment of former sugar workers in non-cane activities. The transformation would be part of the new initiatives to focus on food security, even as Guyana prepares for first oil, and the immense new wealth that would flow in the years ahead.

Former sugar workers and their off-springs must be counted among all of our people who would enjoy the bright prospects ahead.