Talks to resume today towards ending sugar industry strike

Stephen Daniels
Stephen Daniels
Stephen Daniels

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) will continue talks today towards finalising the terms of resumption that will see sugar workers back on the job as soon as possible.

GAWU President Komal Chand told Stabroek News that the talks were postponed until later in the afternoon yesterday with GuySuCo requesting additional time to prepare.

Later yesterday, GuySuCo Human Resources Manager Jairam Petam told Stabroek News that the two sides had failed to reach an agreement and are scheduled to meet again today at noon. “Hopefully, we should be able to reach an agreement for the strike to be called off,” he said.

Meanwhile, as talks were postponed at the Labour Ministry, workers at the Albion estate went on strike in solidarity with Skeldon workers.

Stabroek News was told that today workers at Rose Hall would up the ante striking alongside Albion and Skeldon.

Chand stated that some workers did return to work at Skeldon following an incident on Friday between a worker and Estate Manager Dave Kumar, which resulted in the worker, Stephen Daniels being issued a dismissal letter.

However, Chand said, the “inadequate hands” meant that while the factory at Skeldon did attempt to grind, the 1,130 punts that were left abandoned