GAWU President Komal Chand

Wage negotiations…

– GuySuCo given “unofficial” notice

BY KRISTEN MACKLINGAM

The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has unofficially been notified there will most likely be another country-wide strike by sugar workers commencing Sunday.

It is expected that after the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) General Council meeting concludes today the decision would be made to have all workers unionized under GAWU to go on strike from tomorrow (Sunday).

Presently, thousands of workers across the sugar belt are awaiting official word from GAWU as to whether or not they should down tools once again and take strike action against the sugar corporation for failing to meet with the Union to discuss wage/salary pay hikes for this year.

GAWU’s President Komal Chand told Guyana Times on Friday evening that such a decision has not yet been made by his Union as its members will be meeting at the level of General Council today to discuss and deliberate on GuySuCo not commencing negotiations for wage/salary increases for 2015.

It is during this meeting the Union will make a decision as to its next course of action; whether or not a strike will take place, when it will begin and how long the strike action will last, if the Council agrees this course of action will be pursued.

As it relates to giving a 72-hour notice to GuySuCo, if the Union will have its workers strike again under the present conditions, Chand maintains that notifying the sugar corporation is not mandatory.

“We haven’t given notice because we argue that we don’t have to give notice… if you haven’t reached a disagreement of something, not reached a deadlock, therefore you don’t have to give notice. We are charging GuySuCo for not respecting the act, the law, the Trade Union Recognition Act, it is not that we have been engaging negotiations over pay increases and we broke down, which would have required us to go to conciliation and then if we broke down there, then we would have to give a notice of intent to strike,” he explained.

Meanwhile, President of Guyana Labour Union Carvil Duncan, told this newspaper on Friday that his Union has not yet made a conscious decision as it relates to strike action and that the reason for this is “simple”.

“Once GAWU and the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) go on strike, there is nothing for my workers to do, because they are at Demerara Sugar Terminal (DST) dealing specifically with the shipment of sugar. So if there is no sugar, there is nothing to ship… GuySuCo would have to pay the workers at the DST for not doing anything,” Duncan stated.

He told Guyana Times the sugar Commission of Inquiry (CoI) that GuySuCo is claiming paves the way forward for the future of the sugar industry has nothing to do with labour relations.

According to the GLU President, the report looks at the entire sugar industry and its future and that regardless of what outcome the report may bring forward workers will still have to be employed.

“You can’t pay some persons, for example the public servants got a five per cent increase, you can’t say that there is nothing for the sugar workers because they are buying from the same shops, buying the same things, and going to the same market places. Therefore their buying power ought to be equal, an increase in salary is a necessity, and what GuySuCo needs to do other than filibustering, the Chairman should say to the Directors that they should propose to give GAWU and the sugar Unions a certain amount, that it would cost so much, and then ask the government if they could finance this proposal so that the industry can move on,” Duncan explained.

Guyana Times was further told GuySuCo should take the position this would be an investment in today for the future of the sugar industry for tomorrow and refrain from making idle threats about sugar workers having a “grim” Christmas this year.

“The workers would even grind on Good Friday, once they are rewarded, they will make the effort. So the grim Christmas threat is a foolish statement coming from the Chairman. He should try to resolve this thing, and not say this is a political strike and not an industrial one. It is an industrial strike because the workers have a genuine problem and if he is skilful enough he would meet with the three Unions at one time, commence negotiations and get from them what their bottom line is; how much they are looking for; what they are prepared to settle with,” he added.

In a recent statement from Office of the Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, the government is pleading with sugar workers to desist from taking any strike actions since this could cripple operations and close down the sugar industry.

However, the administration is maintaining its position that wage/salary dialogue cannot commence at this point since a 10-year road map is being devised for the flailing industry and that no more money is available from the State.

As such, the government is urging that all sugar workers and their unions assist in rescuing the industry, by remaining committed to their jobs, and with the upcoming holiday season, to earn as much as possible before the current crop culminates. (kristenm@guyanatimesgy.com)