The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) has applied for the current dispute with GuySuCo over the payment of the Annual Production Incentive (API) for 2009 to go to arbitration.
General Secretary of the union Seepaul Narine told Stabroek News yesterday that the union had written to the Sugar Corporation on Tuesday applying for arbitration in the ongoing API dispute in keeping with their Collective Labour Agreement (CLA).
Narine said that the Corporation had yet to respond to it. According to him under the CLA, voluntary arbitration is an option when both parties agree to the process.
Meanwhile, Narine disclosed that GuySuCo has invited him to meet today with the Board and Management of the Corporation.
At this meeting, matters of mutual concern to both parties as well as issues connected with the industrial action are set to be discussed. The union will decide on future actions based on the outcome of this meeting, Narine stated.
The General Secretary, however, stressed that the sugar workers will not tolerate any threats from the Corporation. “We shall not be threatened, workers shall stand up and fight and defend their rights”, Narine said.
He said that the letter sent to him on Tuesday by the Corporation, following industrial action by workers on the Albion and Wales sugar estates, was “provocative”.
The General Secretary also denied that the sugar workers on Wales estate were on strike on Tuesday. He said they merely engaged in a picketing exercise. He pointed out that no production is currently ongoing on the estates and according to him the workers are now engaging in “out of crop work”. This includes cultivation work, wedding clearing of drains etc., he pointed out.
Concerning the Corporation’s payment of the API, the General Secretary insists that the union’s demand of 8 days pay for 233,735 tonnes is not too much. He said that in 2008 when the company experienced a $4 billion loss, the workers were paid 8 days API for 226,267 tonnes. He said that last year, the Corporation achieved a profit of $480 million and could afford to fork out the eight days’ pay.
Regarding the strike action on the Albion estate over the state of the access road to the estate, Narine said that the workers were free to protest over any issue that was bothering them and said that the constitution gave workers the right to strike.
He pointed out that this was not the first time workers would have protested and engaged in strike action against issues not necessarily related to their immediate work conditions.
Stabroek News was told that work on these estates resumed as normal yesterday.
