Unmoved by the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) rationale that it was waiting for the CoI report to begin wage talks, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) said yesterday it was willing to seek an audience with the government.
Head of GAWU Komal Chand told Stabroek News that if GuySuCo was waiting on a government directive prior to the commencement of collective bargaining, then it should say so at which point GAWU was prepared to seek an audience with the government.
He said GAWU would want to urge government, “If it is some kind of directive or framework that they need to guide the corporation let them do it.”
He said that the union understands the importance of the Commission of Inquiry into the sugar industry report. However waiting on the report does not allow contravention of the law. Chand said that regardless of views expressed GuySuCo the fact remains that the sugar corporation is in breach of the Trade Union Recognition Act.
He noted that CEO Errol Hanoman has refused to comment and discuss fringe matters. Chand said that tackling the fringe benefits would allow sugar workers to take note that movement and progress were being made in the wages talks. “He has refused,” Chand stated.
“We have expressed a lot of tolerance. This is the first time we have reached the month of November and we have not started talks.”
The head of the union said he did not want to jump the gun before the General Council meeting this Saturday, but he did not rule out future strike action.
Roughly 90 per cent of the council’s 53 members belong to the various estates, Chand stated and their work on the grounds increases their frustration over the corporation’s sloth in taking workers’ rights seriously.
“We don’t see why they keep holding on to the CoI report. It should be released,” he said.
Chand said that given the importance of the report and the weight it has on GuySuCo’s decision to engage in the lawful act of collective bargaining, “It should be studied within a short period of time and it should be quickly addressed by the government.”
As regards Hanoman’s remarks and the subsequent press release issued by GuySuCo, Chand said, “All that Mr Hanoman said, the fact is that the corporation keeps disrespecting the law… How can GuySuCo defend themselves here and what posture they can take when they are simply not engaging?”
He said the National Association of Agricultu-ral, Commercial and Industrial Employees as well as proposals by the Guyana Labour Union had also not been addressed by GuySuCo. He reiterated the union’s long held view that sugar workers are part of the public sector, yet have not seen a wage increase that was promised.
“Certainly I want to believe that the government will be sympathetic to the sugar workers’ claims because they mentioned a 20% wage increase in 2011 and 2015. Sugar workers are employees of the government, of the public sector,” Chand stated,
He said GuySuCo “Has not acknowledged that it is GuySuCo that is causing the workers to come out in protest.”
On Sunday, GuySuCo stated, “If protest action continues, it could spell a grim Christmas for sugar workers and their families.”
The statement came a day after GAWU said it was prepared to give the corporation a week to begin talks while warning that industrial action was not off the table should the corporation return without a proper date to commence talks.
The meeting between the union and the corporation followed a three-day, industry-wide strike which commenced on October 25.
GuySuCo said Hanoman informed the union that the sugar corporation was “was awaiting advice on the way forward for the industry after government considered the report and recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry.”
According to a statement, he told the union, “…There will be negotiations but we have a chicken and egg situation. Wage negotiation before the road map or the road map before negotiation? He informed the union that both will happen.
“There will be negotiations, just not today. He asked that everyone focus their energies on a good outcome in the evolving road map of the industry.”
