Chand to Holder: ‘Tell the public which sugar workers are highest paid’
Wednesday , October 28 2015, Citizen’s Report, Source
A CHALLENGE has been put to Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder, to substantiate his statement that, “GuySuCo workers are the highest paid in the country” – a comment made in response to the three-day strike action mounted by sugar workers. President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Komal Chand, told Citizens’ Report that the Minister should release the salary scales of every category of worker to clarify the issue.
“GAWU challenges him to come public and disclose the average earning of every category of sugar worker. If he wants to say that the sugar workers are the highest paid the he must release the numbers for every category of worker, the cane cutters, weeders and shovel men and so on,” Chand said.
The GAWU President argued that Holder not only misled the public is saying that GuySuCo workers are the highest paid, particularly since he linked that comment to that fact sugar workers moved to a strike action to call for an increase.
He added that Holder’s disclosure that the GuySuCo Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report is what informed his comment is another a fallacy.
“GAWU had a member on the CoI and that was the opinion of one commissioner not the whole commission, so to convey that statement as the position the full Commission is also misleading the public. It was the view of one and one person,” Chand said.
The GAWU President expressed the hope the “wisdom will prevail” and held the same contention when asked for an update on the strike action.
“The strike has ended to allow GuySuCo to reflect on the violation of the agreement, which we have in a letter, so that we can sit and meet.
GAWU, which represents hundreds of sugar workers, submitted it wage claim to GuySuCo since March 08, 2015. Subsequently, on September 16, 2015, Chand said that the Union was informed that negotiations would start on October 7, 2015. However, a day before that date, GAWU was told that there would be no negotiations until Cabinet considers the report by the Commission of Inquiry.
A week after the report was completed, two weeks past the initial deadline for completion, the report still has not made it to Cabinet.
“We are not going to set a deadline,” he said. However, Chand stressed that GAWU’s demands are reasonable given that they are calling for a nine per cent increase – the lowest in over a decade.
“GuySuCo gave GAWU an assurance that the negotiations will start at a particular time and that was not done. We took action. What is political about our decision? Nothing!” Chand declared.
Moving forward, the GAWU President noted that the Union will continue to engage GuySuCo, not political directors, as it has always done in advancing the interests of sugar workers.
