Dear Editor,

I applaud the announcement of Vice-President Jagdeo that sugar workers will get a seven per cent wage increase (GC Dec 21). It is way overdue!
I note that during the PNC-led Coalition tenure (May 2015 to July 2020), the sugar workers did not get any wage increase. In fact, from 2014 to late 2020, sugar workers did not get any salary increase. During the corresponding period, according to GAWU, real wages declined by 42 per cent.

The other government sector received pay increases that neutralised inflation. The sugar workers and private sector employees on fixed pay suffered.

The PPP administration gave the sugar workers five per cent pay increase in late 2020. The announced seven per cent increase can be attributed to what in labour referred to as “pattern increase” since other government workers received seven per cent wage increase a month ago.

Vice-President Jagdeo has corrected an injustice committed by APNU. Since the other sector workers got in excess of 25 per cent increase under APNU, patterned bargaining suggests they deserve a total increment equivalent to the other sectors over that five-year period. The sugar workers were about the only productive sector actually bringing earnings — foreign exchange — to the government.

The lack of a pay increase for some five years under PNC-led rule and the closure of four estates had a tremendous economic impact on those communities as well as the nation. I visited several villages on my own expense to study the effects of the factory closures. Communities suffered. The closures created economic hardship for some 40,000 families. There were no replacement jobs for the aging and unskilled sugar workers. There was a paucity of alternative local employment opportunities, especially in a contracting economic environment. All the local businesses and industries were affected by the closure, introducing a chain effect in community activities, standard of living, region, and the nation that is not easy to recover from.

As I found, families used all their savings to meet basic needs. It would be recalled that there was no severance pay until the workers pursued court action. Income was not coming in. The closures created economic hardship for over forty thousand families. Families were unable to provide three meals to children. They could not send children to school as they lacked money for transportation.  Dislocation of families took place. Adults had to search outside of communities for work. There was a marked increase in suicide, domestic abuse, and alcoholism. There was a prevalence of sexual exploitation of women and teenage girls. There was a dramatic effect on health (physical and mental) and the affected could not afford medical bills to address their problems.

The estates closures also had a negative consequence on the private sugarcane growers. Their income also suffered. Their lands became fallow and have now been overgrown with weeds and bushes.

The damage to the local community and economy was compounded by the pull-back on spending. The schools, hospitals, markets, clinics, businesses, restaurants, groceries, public transport and service facilities that were established, centering round the factories, also suffered as a consequence. The Coalition Government didn’t spend in these communities because the bulk of the population supported the PPP, choosing instead to splurge on their supporters.

The economic effects of factories closure and denial of a pay increase to sugar workers were not localised but regional and national as well. The total loss of income and the consequent contraction of expenditure of the jobless estate workers and surrounding population have had a depressing effect on the local economy by indirectly affecting other producers and service providers who depend on each other’s income. The closure of estates led to a partial or full closure of other businesses and industries in the area. They set off a downward spiral of economic activities resulting in additional unemployment, out-migration and large-scale displacement of population.

The government is applauded for addressing an injustice committed on sugar workers by offering a wage increase. It should also consider addressing other economic deprivations and infrastructure work of the communities affected by estate closures.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram