-sugar production surpasses target, union to offer counter-proposal to bonus

THE sugar industry which has been labelled as a “political football” over the years will again be at the helm of the agenda of political parties as a possible General and Regional Elections loom.

IN order to safeguard sugar workers against persuasion, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) intends on meeting with the major political parties to discuss possible plans and programmes for the industry.

The union which has approximately 7,500 members, said the outcome of the discussions will be relayed to their members who would then make their choices.
Elections could be held within 90 days because of a no-confidence motion which was tabled by the Parliamentary Opposition and passed in the National Assembly.

“We stay clear…as far as the union is concerned, to tell people you must support this party of that party, we do not do that…that is their right and in our union we have supporters of all political parties,” said General Secretary of GAWU, Seepaul Narine during a press conference on Friday.

The sugar industry, which has been underperforming for years, was downsized in order to become viable again.
President of the GAWU, Komal Chand said the downsizing has “severely” affected the union in the area of revenue collection.
The union, however, continues to support its members who function under the three sugar estates which remain operational.

Despite the challenges facing the industry, sugar production exceeded its revised target for this year. According to Narine, sugar production as at December 22, stood at 103,511, exceeding the revised target of 103,002 tonnes. Government had initially announced that 115,447 tonnes sugar would have been produced this year.

A breakdown of the information showed that Albion estate produced 56,780 tonnes of sugar; Blairmont produced 29,456 tonnes and Uitvlugt produced 17,275 tonnes.
This year, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has said it wishes to reward its workers for their good efforts this year with a bonus payment.

Narine however said the bonus, as the corporation terms it, is by no means a new initiative. He said the arrangement under consideration is identical to the Annual Production Incentive (API) scheme which was suspended for years now.
The API, as GAWU has shared before, dates back to colonial times and is a form of deferred earnings premised on annual sugar production.

“For the workers, the fact that the corporation has offered such an incentive is a clear indication that their collective voices and actions could not be ignored by the GuySuCo hierarchy and possibly, the powers-that-be.”
“While happy about this development, workers remain concerned that the corporation has yet to consider the union’s claim for a 15 per cent rise-in-pay retroactive to January 1, 2018,” said Narine.

GAWU and GuySuCo have already concluded discussions on the non-wage benefits. Those engagements resulted in a few improvements being secured, he said.

COUNTER-PROPOSAL
The union has put forward a counter-proposal regarding the bonus and the corporation has committed examining the suggestion.
Also, it is reasonable to expect that the present leadership, having recognised the value of the API incentive, would undertake the removal of the suspension and see such a practice as good for the industry’s progress.
“The GAWU, at this, time looks forward to the corporation, in a similar vein, positively considering a pay rise for year 2018,” said Narine.