– sacked sugar workers tell of their struggles, look forward to returning to work

By Nafeeza Yahya-Sakur

“WITHOUT agriculture Guyana is nothing,” said Hemraj Badal, contending that “oil will come and done” as he commended the move by government to re-open the closed Berbice sugar estates.

Badal, a former foreman at the Rose Hall Estate, East Canje, Berbice, said the new government must focus on agriculture and it must never be neglected for oil.

He was one of the few sugar workers who were lucky to find a stable job after the estate was closed in 2018. He is now employed as a security guard with a private company after searching for over three months and could not find a steady job.

Now that the government is keeping good on its promise to re-open the estates that were closed by the APNU+AFC administration, displacing over 7, 000 workers, Badal, like many, is eager to return to work with GuySuCo.

“As a little boy growing up our parents always encouraged you to get a job at the estate because you will get the benefits even if is not right away, so that was my goal, since going to school, to work in the estate. But in 2015 you keep hearing the estate gon close and nobody believed but when you receive the letter in 2018, you get shocked. It was heartbreaking. But now that this government is committed to re-opening the industry, we all know that without agriculture, this country is nothing and is the biggest foreign exchange in terms of the economy for the country that will remain even after oil,” he told the Guyana Chronicle.

The transition for the 31-year-old father of one has been hard but was necessary in order for him to provide for his family.

With tears welling in his eyes as he looked to his infant son sitting on the bicycle with him, he expressed gratitude to his current employer, pointing out that many of his colleagues were still unemployed. Many have resorted to subsistence farming and fishing to make ends meet apart from doing odd jobs, occasionally.

“Moving from a certain amount of salary to a lower one, you had to adjust your lifestyle and not getting a union to represent you, it is difficult but I had no choice…. A lot of people depend on the sugar estate and everybody know that Canje, without the estate, is a dead place so now that the sugar industry is gonna open  back everybody will benefit again, ”he said.

The government has allocated $5B to GuySuCo, of which $3B is set aside specifically for critical works geared towards the phased re-opening of the Rose Hall, Skeldon and Enmore estates.

This announcement was made last Wednesday by Public Works Minister, Bishop Juan Edghill, who presented the national budget.

LONG-TERM GOAL

Edghill said a viable and sustainable sugar industry is the government’s long-term goal and it will work to solve the problems of the industry holistically.

He noted that the government, since assuming office, has been doing an assessment on the state of the assets and the level of re-investment to be done, starting with an initial allocation of $3 billion in 2020 for critical works, with an additional $2 billion being made available should works progress. As for the Wales Estate, he said works have commenced to create opportunities and employment under the newly-established Wales Development Authority.

“The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) will concentrate its efforts to ensure it achieves, in the short-term, a break-even status. We will ensure better management by appointing a new, competent and skilled board of directors. We will ensure greater efficiency through the necessary re-tooling, product diversification and retraining where necessary,” he told the House.

As the news was announced, residents of the East Canje community who have seen their village economy decimated by the closure of the estates are now breathing a sigh of relief.

In Berbice, the Rose Hall Canje Estate was home to some 2,500 sugar workers, 1,181 of those were retrenched, many of whom were the sole breadwinners of their families. At the Skeldon Estate, another 1,851 workers were retrenched.

BAD TREATMENT

The remaining workers from the Rose Hall estate were transferred to Blairmont Estate over in West Coast Berbice and Albion Estate on the Corentyne. Many, after being transferred, had complained bitterly and even held strikes about the distance and treatment they received at the other estates. Some had remarked they were being treated as “step-children” after they were made to wait several hours for trucks to take them home despite completing their tasks for the day.

It is therefore no surprise that many like Pretipaul Chetram, 45, of Gangaram Settlement, who was transferred to the Albion Estate, are anxiously waiting the re-opening of the Rose Hall Estate so that they can hopefully get to be transferred back to their hometown.

Chetram has been with the estate since the age of 25, employed as a ‘planter’. He noted that while there is a truck that takes them from the head of his street to Albion daily, the time and travelling are quite fatiguing.

“When it reopens here I hope I can get returned to work here because I does leave home like four o’clock in the morning and get back home until after three in the afternoon. When we working here, I’m home by mid-day because the backdams here is closer,” he related.

A businessman that operates a grocery store at Rose Hall, Canje, who asked not to be named, said when the estate was in operation, he was doing well in sales. However, when the estate was closed, his sales dipped significantly.
He sees hope of better days ahead with the re-opening the estates.

“With the opening of the sugar estate, everyone is looking forward to that because once people can earn they can help the home, their children also shop which will help businesses. The only source of income for this community was from the sugar estate and when it was closed, business drastically reduced,” he said.

Deodat Persaud, a religious leader and a youth advocate, said the closure of the estates, apart from the economic effects, had far-reaching psychological implications, especially for men who were the sole breadwinners of their families.

BROKEN HOMES, SEPARATED FAMILIES

This has led to many families being displaced and separated. Many homes were broken due to a build-up in frustration from not knowing where the next meal was coming from.

He posited that, with the estates being re-opened, the availability of steady jobs will help to reignite the family and make it a more cohesive unit, since the frustration will no longer be there.

Persaud, however, cautioned that workers returning to the estates should be prepared for changes in the manner in which they previously operated and put forward better work ethics to help ensure sustainability of the industry.

For Steve Sirkisoon, 31, a former field mechanic and father of two, he was forced to accept a taxi job for $2,000 to support his family. For him, losing his job at the estate was an eye opener and he can’t wait to return to the estate.

“Losing the job at the estate made me realise that the things that we often complain about and take for granted was actually better, when you get to the private sector then you see the conditions that you are being forced to work in and the advantage that they take on you because you don’t have a choice.”

Overall, the reaction from communities has been one filled with hope as many look forward to a return to the state of economic vibrancy they once enjoyed.

Kumar Mahabir of Lot 1047 East Canefield, a father of three, who worked as part of the bell gang loading cane, was filled with excitement as he only recently got a regular job after searching for more than 18 months.

He feels his prayers have been answered.

“With the estate, you nah gah worry about nothing cause you know is a steady job you getting and nah gah worry wah gun happen tomorrow. I am so happy right now that I just can’t wait for the estate to start back so I can get proper things for me family, especially my children them,” he said with a broad smile on his face