‘It is time that the corporation truthfully advise the nation on the state of affairs of the new Skeldon factory which continues to hemorrhage the industry’s treasury’
The Guyana Agricultural and General Worker’s Union (GAWU) has criticized operations at the Skeldon factory pointing to repeated mechanical breakdowns which have resulted in down time and a dismal production record.
The main sugar union issued a statement yesterday saying “It is time that the corporation truthfully advise the nation on the state of affairs of the new Skeldon factory which continues to hemorrhage the industry’s treasury”. This follows a recent call from union president, Komal Chand for an inquiry into the Skeldon factory.
GAWU’s statement came ahead of a scheduled meeting with GuySuCo officials today to discuss the issue of wages and salaries. The sugar corporation has proposed a maximum five per cent across-the-board wage hike in the industry tied to production. That offer among others comes as the industry remains 73,000 tonnes shy of its twice-revised target: 264,000 tonnes.
GAWU reported that Skeldon’s production for the year is heavily under target; more than 20,000 tonnes as of yesterday. The union said that since the second crop started on August 13 Skeldon has experienced a number of mechanical breakdowns which halted production as recently as Tuesday- operations ceased from around 4 am until 4 pm due to a fault in the factory’s lone boiler.
During the downtime approximately 600 punts of cane were waiting to be crushed, according to GAWU. The union mentioned the second boiler which was damaged earlier this year saying that it is still out of service and that reliable sources have informed that repairs are yet to commence.
“No longer should the Corporation fail to replace the ill-suited and inferior components lest the factory’s interminable problems continue to bedevil the industry. The industry’s future is at stake”, GAWU declared. The industry has the capacity to produce 320,000 tonnes of sugar and the union charged yesterday that if the new factory performs as per design with the additional canes from Skeldon farmers and the expanded estate cultivation, a further 85,000 tonnes of sugar could be easily produced every year.
According to GAWU, ramped up production with a higher prevailing world price would result in the industry being in a sound position, in addition to propelling itself to a sustainable position and fulfilling its expected role in the country’s economy. The union added that the corporation should desist from making the workers the scapegoats for its poor state of affairs.
Recently, GAWU President Komal Chand told Stabroek News that setbacks at the Skeldon factory have been persistent enough for one to reasonably call for an inquiry into what is “going on there”. He believes the operational problems have been ongoing for too long. “Everything is not fine at Skeldon, far from it; they need to have Skeldon put in order…”
But GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Bhim rejected the call saying he has no idea what the union meant by “inquiry”. He said some of the problems at Skeldon are known such as the non-functional boiler and occasional issues with the punt dumpers, adding that there are other defects which are consistently being addressed. He also pointed out that the factory is still to undergo a key test which is not likely until next year.
“It is not fully tested, it is still settling down…,” Bhim said of the factory, adding that problems would occur from time to time.
The final round of testing is not possible with one of the boilers currently out of operation; the Chinese firm, CNTIC which built the factory is still on the ground at Skeldon waiting to run the final test sometime in 2011.
