This past week, we witnessed sugar workers from Albion and Blairmont Estates striking and calling on the government for some severance payment which they believe they are owed.
Some of the workers have said, in interviews with the press and media, that they feel the government should meet with them to find a resolution to their problem. They have even stated the hardships they are made to go through en route to Rose Hall Estate and other nearby estates.

For them, they had to protest as the Guyana Agriculture Workers’ Union was no longer seemingly on their side, or fighting for these sugar workers, most of whom are considered middle-aged East Indian men.

Surprisingly, the AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan is supporting the sugar workers from these two estates in their struggle against the government. Ramjattan, as he is quoted in the media saying, wants President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali to meet with this group and give the striking workers something similar to what the other sugar workers had been given.

Interestingly, he feels the government is discriminating against this lot of workers and is continuing to mismanage the industry by throwing money down a “black hole”. He doubled down on his criticism of the Ali Government and the PPP/C’s disdain for the sugar workers and the entire industry. This, he said, must stop. He appealed, just Friday, for higher salaries for sugar workers and better management of the sector.

Firstly, Guyanese are woefully disappointed in this group of sugar workers for their stance on this issue. These workers are disingenuous to think that this PPP/C government would pay out severance or cash grants to them, having been dismissed by the previous APNU+AFC government, and not pay them what they are legally and rightfully due. After all, they are entitled to nothing given the arguments that have surfaced for this severance.

It is mind-boggling that these workers believe President Ali would sit idly by and allow the Ministry of Labour not to intervene in the issue if they had a genuine concern.
It is beyond comprehension of any right-thinking Guyanese to believe that the Ali’s government and the PPP/C party that fought tooth and nail for the rights of working-class people, especially the dismissed sugar workers in general, against the APNU+AFC Government and their policy on sugar, would be happy and content with doing them wrong. The truth is, the PPP/C and Ali’s government are on the right side of history with this issue.

It is unfortunate and sad that these striking workers have not taken a moment to think, ponder and do a proper analysis of the entire issue at hand.
They are so quick to forget their past challenges and who was with them, holding their hands and almost crying for their futures. It is telling that they would willingly seek to be part of this opposition plan to destroy the very industry that the PPP/C is trying to save. They have put the estates at Blairmont and Albion at great expense by striking and engaging in unsubstantiated and undue industrial action. The sugar workers seem to be fooled and duped again by the sweet-talking AFC and Ramjattan who appear to master the art of political buffoonery and crookishness.
Secondly, the Guyanese public cannot believe that sugar workers at Albion and Blairmont Estates would allow themselves to believe a word that Ramjattan has to say about sugar, considering the fact that it was his government and Cabinet that shut it down. Ramjattan, try as he may, is synonymous with the failure of the sugar industry in Guyana along with the former PM Moses Nagamootoo and the former AFC Minister Noel Holder.

This snake-oil salesman failed already to “right-size” the sugar industry. Also, his party crippled the production figures and plans from 2015 to 2020. One would think that he would be ashamed to even talk about a pay increase when his party not only failed to address it while they were in power but failed miserably to create a social welfare plan and sustainable and short-term employment for more than 7, 000 working families it deliberately left hungry and in tears.

Why does Ramjattan believe that the PPP/C would listen to him talk about sugar? Has Ramjattan ever been loyal and true to sugar workers? Do this group of sugar workers think, yet again, that he has their interest at heart?
He was rejected by the wise and common sugar workers at the last election but has somehow found a new group of sugar workers whom he exploits for political points and to get at his enemies. He knows why he would not want to represent their issue in a competent court of law. It is because these sugar workers have no case and Ramjattan knows that they are being grossly unfair to GAWU, and the PPP/C Administration.

Thirdly, crookish Ramjattan and the AFC can never possess the vision and foresight to see straight and long enough the plan of successive PPP/C Governments.
Many Guyanese believe that the PPP/C Government is not pouring money and resources down a ‘black hole’. Instead, they are making deliberate investments to turn around an important industry that Guyana benefitted for decades from, and make it viable, if not, totally profitable soon. There are reforms and strict technical investments being made to have GuySuCo understand that it must get its act together. For as long as Guyana’s energy and electricity costs are high, the cost of producing sugar will continue to be a challenge but Ramjattan, with his politics of spite and confusion, cannot see this.

Finally, when he said he prefers to see the industry at its “right size,” he meant perhaps to see the industry at zero. If his and AFC’s track record counts, the sugar workers should throw him and his shenanigans or the AFC’s criticisms where they belong, in the bin.
They should turn back out to work. Ramjattan does not care about their welfare and sustenance. They should also apologize to GAWU and fellow workers in the industry because they would have nothing to complain about if the industry had died and shut down permanently. The best days are ahead as soon as we focus on the sweet in sugar; we can never allow sugar to become bitter!