Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr. Errol O S Hanoman’s letter (SN 10-30-2009) on sugar captioned, `GAWU distorting grim realities of sugar, all sides must work together to keep industry alive’ and wish to state that he clearly shows that GuySuCo must undertake a serious financial and ownership correction, if there is to be any hope of it becoming profitable again. This task, however, is not Mr. Hanoman’s to undertake; instead, it is the job of the Government of Guyana to set GAWU straight.
Unfortunately, however, Government will not antagonize the Union bosses and workers, for political expediency always supersedes economic viability in the calculus practiced by the Government of Guyana. In other words, a government owned company, such as GuySuCo, if found making a loss at a time when workers are claiming wage repression, albeit falsely, will pay so as not to deviate from its philosophy of sugar workers’ rights even when they are wrong. Incidentally, were any workers disciplined/charged for the sugarcane that was destroyed by fire recently on the West Coast/West Demerara area? I guess no one was held and the Union did not even act to bring the perpetrators to justice—just history repeating itself in a troubled land.
On the technical side, the Diamond land sale for $10.6 Billion (how many acres?) will be a ‘fire-sale’, especially if the profit margin on every ton of sugar sold is not restored to positive territory (currently, it is negative; and only increases in productivity can change this outcome). If a negative profit margin persists, GuySuCo will have to sell some more lands in a repetitive but destructive game aimed at satisfying its cash flow requirements, and this will signal that the end game is operational. I am sure Guyanese are aware of this, but GAWU would not be bothered, since as long as GuySuCo pays them their union dues, they will remain happy, while planning ‘the next wage strike for a wage hike’, for as is known from our ancestors, ‘dog wuh does suck egg, can’t stop”. Alternatively, there is yet still hope, and GAWU can do something unique: they can pay the workers the 15 percent from their bank account to show commitment and that would be a real first anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, a special thanks to Mr. Hanoman for putting the facts in the public domain. We need another twenty like you in some of the other Government agencies, for truth telling will set Guyana on a different path to progress.
Yours faithfully,
C. Kenrick Hunte
Kenrick, you could never find the GLU calling strike action against Forbes Burnham’s regime, and that is because Burnham was head of the party, that was paramount over everything and everyone; head of the government/state; and head of the GLU. That combination made him too powerful for anyone in his union to think about striking against his government. The Jagdeo government, therefore, can only rein in GAWU if the government’s head is the party’s head, and the way matters seem to stand today, government and the party are operating from two different manuals, and since the GAWU strike actions are antagonistic, the actions can be interpreted as political rather than financial.
Dr. Hunte, sugar workers were conditioned from back in the days to see strike as just, even though the leaders knew it was used as a political weapon. The mis-education of the sugar workers is now working to the deteriment of its Educator-in-Chief. I’d say leave them alone to self destruct or fall by the way side as with any business but with taxpayers money involve and the gov’t taking more loans on taxpayers back people have to make GAWU sees the foolishness of its destructive action.
Great advise to Dr. Hunte. I am not sure whether kenrick is being patriotic or devil’s advocate. Leave the PPP and GAWU alone Kenrick. This is how they would have wanted it…so, I am not being rude when I say ‘just keep out’….it’s time the sugar workers carry their own coffin to thier funeral, for too long the bauxite workers were lonley in the grave yard the PPP and Jagdeo built.