PPP/C will fight privatisation of sugar industry – Jagdeo

Who gives a damn what he promises to do now? When he had the chance for over a decade to give this industry its legs he instead chopped it at the knees and left it a crippled mess.

“Government does not want to put public funds into the industry, which it badly needs now, but it’s ok to keep subsidising electricity in Linden. So we spend billions of dollars on this but we can’t help the sugar industry which had pumped billions of dollars into our economy decades ago and now it needs help, we can’t help the sugar industry,” he remarked.

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But adding fuel to the fire, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder in response to the strike action reportedly said he is surprised at it since “GuySuCo workers are the highest paid in the country”.

Speaking on Holder’s comment, the Opposition Leader outlined that the Agriculture Minister does not seem to know what he is talking about. Jagdeo underscored that a comparative analysis of the salaries across the region needs to be done for the Minister to see.

One is real money to subsidize a failing industry that is making sucking sounds and the other at  Linden is hollywood accounting.

BOSAI produces the electricity at below GPL rates. GPL resells it to Linden at its rate which is already 40 percent marked up because of line loss. This mark up is deemed a subsidy to linden!

In reality they are the highest paid workers in the country inclusive of wage laborers elsewhere or the civil servants or the shop girl. That is a fact jack. Indeed they work hard  and earn in their toil at an onerous task what is actually below their due. But the wage here is  still higher than everywhere else and those people are not having an easy time either.

Jagdeo can blow all his hot air to impress the sugar workers for votes, but the government is in-charge to make the final decision about the sugar industry.

The PPP had a chance for 23 years to create change, but they  made things much worse, with their greed and corruption.

Why don't you add up the subsidies to LINDENERS (exclude any which the bauxite company gets) and compare this to subsidies to Guysuco.

Any case of what use is subsidized electricity to the unemployed.  Jagdeo privatized bauxite and thousands lost their jobs.  He did NOTHING to help them find alternate employment.

What is he squealing about?

Please source your assertion that they are the highest paid workers in Guyana. I was going to point out that Holder is a dunce in Mathematics because he works for more than them. But on reflection, decided not to because we were talking about workers and Holder has done nothing yet For the money he receives from the taxpayers so I cannot view him as a worker.

GAWU head said that they make GY$1.2 million annually.  This works out to an AVERAGGE monthly income of US$500.  They do not work in sugar every month, leaving them time to engage in other activities.

But even assuming that they do not, how many working class Guyanese make US$500/month?  Even some of the paraprofessionals like teachers and nurses do not.

Given that all comments, including that from Holder, come from GAWU, I suggest that you argue with them if their data is wrong.  Given that a union will UNDER rather than overestimate incomes, maybe they might be making even more. Certainly when earnings from outside of sugar are included.

1.  Guysuco is broke.

2.  Guysuco is sustained by taxpayers, most of whom earn LESS than do sugar workers, and even those who might not pay income tax certainly pay VAT.

3.  Guysuco has a bloated payroll, and ought to be way more mechanized than it is.  Many of Guysuco estates and factories should be closed down, but remain open because of the social implications of closure.

It is ridiculous for sugar workers to be claiming more now, when their main concern  should be whether Guysuco is shut down or sold, both having dire impacts on their lives.

Guysuco should NOT get treatment more favorable than Guymine as they were both a financial drain, and globally uncompetitive.

Jagdeo and his friends are the ones who put GuySuCo in this position. The U$200Million Skeldon failure was the main cause of the current problems.

GAWU will never be honest about this.

Jagdeo needs to tell us why he privatized Guymine and did NOTHING to help those who lost employment find other ways of earning a living, and yet thinks that Guysuco ought to be immune.

Every other CARICOM nation has either shut down, or reduced their sugar operations. Clearly sugar can no longer offer the prospects that it once did as a labor intensive and high cost producer.  No more EU guarantees.

Jagdeo playing you people for fools. During his tenure sugar was still subsidized by the EU. It as only after the subsidy was gone that the inefficiency in the industry got revealed. The plan to build the Skeldon plant was ill advised by Booker Tate who wanted to keep their jobs so they told the PPP what they wanted to hear.  Jagdeo could not close down the industry and risk the wrath of his supporters. So now he is relying on Granger to do the evil necessary deed and take the blame. His words are just a veil for what he really thinks, that the sugar industry as it exists is no longer functional and must be privatized or closed down. 

Are you talking about canecutters or the industry as a whole including the bandits that pay themselves mega dollars to "run" the industry?  I bet they are talking about some average of ALL workers if they are providing an annual number. There is no way that canecutters make $1.2 million a year.  Prove me wrong.

Preferential price is still available through 2017 albeit less than previous years.

Decisions on the sugar industry should be made based on TRUE economics as opposed to kanta economics.  It definitely should not be based on politics.  True economics will take into consideration social costs also.

I believe the sugar industry will suffer an unfaithful disaster under the Granger administration. Jagdeo may be on something to avoid the government from selling it to private companies.

 would accept this figure if GAWU and you say it is so. But, I will like to examine those figures a little more closer, looking at the distribution, etc. This will tell me know, as you will accept too.

this industry has been a political football used by previously governments for political purposes. Unfortunately, workers have not questioned ethose who represent them are both the union and political levels.

I think that we need to look st the broader consequences on both the local and national economy for both the long term and short term of either continued sugar production as a government owned company, a private company or the clisure of the sugar industry. It is more than the cost of subsidizing losses. If as many post here and many in the then opposition who now form the government that the problem of the sugar industry is a result of poor management and corruption, then why expect the workers to bear the burden. Even if it is justified that this is so, there is still a collective agreement in place and Guysuco needed to meet with the union to seek their consent to delay talks on wages. I would have made the same argument if I Were around when Guymine was privatized. As a nation we need to value the human potential and move beyond base politics, or ethnic considerations are a personal local and national level.

It is a myth that we can divorce economic decisions from political decisions.

Politics has everything to do with what we do, what we eat,drink,wear,smoke...

Why?  Why can't the future of the sugar industry be based on economics?  I do not think this administration has anything to lose if it makes a decision based on "true economics." The PPP perhaps has votes to lose, but they are not in power.

Well said.  You can be my Prime Minister because I just fired Caribny.

$1.2 million annual salary is the figure that was given by GAWU president Komal Chand a few days ago.

Agreed 100 Percent. Jagdeo is playing the AFC/PNC fools to the max.

I believe you, but we need to know the details behind it.  Do you know how the came up with the $8,000 toilet bowl and $1,000 hammer in the US army?  It made headline news but you need to know the facts.

I'm not privy to the data myself but that was the number I saw quoted in the news a few days ago and attributed to the union head. There were no details published, just a general statement he was making. I am guessing that as the union boss, he knows what he's talking about and that the number is in the general ballpark of what canecutters make.

I doubt it, but lets wait and see.  I cannot see an AVERAGE cane cutter earning US$6,000 per year.

u can come off welfare now and start cutting cane 

As a certified economist, Bharrat Jagdeo ought to know that the demand for Guyana sugar is no longer a given, that the sugar industry in sister Caricom states has already downsized and worked out alternative economic activities, that there is no guarantee that GuySuCo sales revenues will exceed production costs in the short or medium-term with the current structure.

A responsible politician in Jagdeo's place would be frank with sugar workers who happen to be PPP supporters, and campaign for alternative employment on their behalf, for diversification, for efficiency in the industry, etc. History moves forward, sugar production in other countries is mechanized. Should Guyana have cane cutters another 50 years? Time to think outside the box. 

Gil,

You are an old an experienced political fighter and should know better than that.

Why should Jagdeo do that ?

This is politics, remember ?

All of these excuses for Indian sugar workers. When it was Guymine you all screamed "lazy blackman".

Guysuco is a loss making entity as was Guymine.  Linden has fewer options as the soil is poor, and yet the bauxite workers were summarily dismissed, and not given any assistance in pursuing other options.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.  If sugar has any potential a buyer will be found. If no one is interested, then clearly sugar represents no value, and should be shut down.  It is clear that no gov't will ever make sugar a success.

GAWU went on strike in an attempt to prove how impoverished the workers are.  Why will GAWU over state the wages earned by the average worker if they wanted to have their wages increased.

Sugar workers make more than does the average worker in Guyana, even as that industry is massively subsidized. The workers are a bunch of spoiled entitled brats who think that the rest of Guyana owes them a living.

This makes a whole lot of sense, but as usual in Guyana Jagdeo screams because the workers are Indian.  He lambastes Linden because they were black.  He didn't care that privatizing bauxite would have brought hardship to the workers.  Who cares.........lazy blackman.

STFU

so he should "STFU" just because u are stumped and need to call anil fuh advice pan a response?

eh? . . . is dat how u roll now?

Why don't you try harry boy...what a waste of a man!