GuySuCo has blamed a dismal production year for its inability to offer sugar workers any increase this year, and yesterday it made a final proposal of two weeks pay which the union said it “has accepted for now”.
The corporation announced that it is in no position to offer workers any increase, in addition to the Annual Production Incentive (API) because of a poor production year. Total production was 209,000 tonnes as of yesterday; the target for 2010 was initially set at 280,000 tonnes.
“This is bleak news for sugar workers who are punishing because of mismanagement at GuySuCo”, President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Komal Chand said yesterday. He said that workers have agreed to continue the struggle at an appropriate time.
GAWU had rejected previous offers from the corporation which were tied to production and had called a crippling seven days strike, but Chand said that the proposal for two weeks pay at the end of this year was accepted.
