Enmore Estate sugar workers yesterday refused to heed a call for a strike by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), which they accused of failing to adequately represent their interests.
At a meeting held with the workers at the Enmore Community Centre Ground, GAWU General Secretary Seepaul Narine was confronted by angry workers who disrupted the meeting, where he tried to whip up support for a call for an industry-wide protest over the delayed Holiday With-Pay (HWP) payout.
GAWU called the meeting after the workers embarked on a three-day strike on Tuesday over their dissatisfaction with the proposed increases to their salaries, after a job evaluation found that the workers were underpaid over the last two decades. An agreement was signed which stipulates that every worker will be paid a 2% increase to their salary for every year they were underpaid. But the workers were dissatisfied with a clause of the agreement that stated “the increase will be paid to the workers on their present job” as opposed to their years of service.
At the meeting, Narine told the workers that every query they have about the job evaluation will be addressed, since GAWU had worked out an agreement with GuySuCo to look at every query in a timely manner.
This caused unrest among the workers, who accused the union of dragging its feet on the matter and charged that no proper representation is given to them.
An angry worker said, “Seepaul is fooling the people,” while another blurted out “28 years we ah work for $1,400 per day and some of them come yesterday and ah get $5,000 ah day.”
At this point, tensions mounted as Narine was subjected to verbal assaults by the workers, who challenged him to picket with them. Narine, however, told the already irate sugar workers that the union had discussions with GuySuCo, which remained silent as to a definite date for payment to the workers of their HWP. “We want to have a protest across the industry because we believe if we do that, we will force the board to pay up and we are serious,” Narine said.
The workers, however, told Narine that they are fed up with GAWU’s strike “nonsense” and that they will take to the picket line if he leads them. But Narine refused, stating that he was unavailable although other officials would join them. His response made the workers angrier and they abruptly ended the meeting and began to verbally attack Narine and GAWU. At this point some of the workers, predominantly men, said that they are fed up and urged the others to return to work, since their families are the ones to suffer and not GuySuCo or GAWU officials.
“Seepaul is fooling allyuh, don’t strike no more. Nah them wife and pickney ah starve when we nah wuk,” one worker said. “Every time they gotta pay people, they say that they don’t have money but if the factory close them gon hurry fuh pay we,” another added. “Well let GAWU wait till we get back pay and den let them collect union dues,” said another.
They said that they will return to work from tomorrow and if GAWU wants them to protest, senior officials must take to the picket line.
