Dear Editor,
This is a letter of appeal to GAWU in particular. I ask who are your constituents and who are the biggest losers in this entire period in the West Demerara sugar industry? From my point of view, the answer to both of these questions remains the workers. If this is the case then we must look at Guysuco from a human development angle but with a heavy dose of financial analysis. This is not politics.
If one is to observe the above figures from a financial perspective, Wales Sugar Estate (WSE) should have been closed years ago. WSE should have been closed since 2008. But the sugar industry is not about pure profit and loss; it is a “country within a country” with its own socio-economic structure. Therefore, we must all be grateful to the past PPP and present Coalition governments for pumping billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money into the sugar industry in an attempt to artificially keep WSE open for eight additional years. But it is time to take WSE off the life support machine come the end of 2016.
The risks are too much and if one observes the recommendations of the Parvatan Commission – it is privatization. But “privatization of Guysuco” translates into “death to the sugar industry”. So what is the end game here Mr. Komal Chand, saving WSE and destroying Guysuco or saving Guysuco but ensuring the best severance packages are secure for the WSE workers? There is still much sugar life in estates like Albion and Blairmont. Why not give them a fighting chance Mr. Komal Chand?
So the focus for the next 12 months should not be on making this WSE issue into a political circus. It is the duty of GAWU to ensure that the Leadership Team in Guysuco and the Ministry of Agriculture treat those workers of WSE identified for severance and the affected residents in the Wales/Patentia/Canal Polder areas, with consideration and compassion.
The big question remains how many of these soon to be ex-WSE workers will be absorbed at Uitvlugt and Enmore and what transportation system will be put in place to impose cash-neutrality on their current wages. This issue is not Mr. Granger targeting sugar workers, this is about stemming the outflow of $12 billion from the Treasury into Guysuco, by way of this life support machine.
This is about the workers and only the workers. Let us find a solution for the workers that will treat them with respect, treat them fairly, and reward them for their loyalty to the sugar industry over the years. This means that all of us (Government/GAWU and so on) must hold the hands of the workers at WSE over the next 24 months until every single one of them can be placed in an alternative economic venture. This project must take the shape of a collective output that is made up of several linked deliverables. Expected deliverables must include:
- Retraining and placement of the workers for employment outside of the sugar industry;
- Unemployment financial support while they are out of a job but to a maximum of 12 months;
- Reposition the workers for a continued life in sugar at Uitvlugt/Enmore with free transport to work;
- A favourable severance package inclusive of $1,000 houselots/lands for the planting of cash crops.
We have to remember the remaining 15,000 sugar workers are watching what is going on at WSE and if this process is badly handled, GAWU will lose much credibility as being incapable of looking out for the workers. The Coalition government has even more to lose if this WSE issue is badly handled. Nothing in life is permanent, even life itself is not permanent, so why should we expect WSE should remain opened permanently?
So I appeal to all, especially the workers at WSE and GAWU to remove the emotions from the issue and let us all work together to ensure every single worker who is made redundant because of this process, will not be reduced to extreme poverty. This is our duty. I stand ready to offer my service to GAWU (at a dollar a year) to help them negotiate a favourable settlement to this issue using my experience in dealing with agricultural businesses in financial distress in the UK. At the end of the day, it is all about the workers. Keeping WSE open is not in the long-term best interest of the workers, but putting them on a firm financial foundation for the future is paramount.
Yours faithfully,
Sase Singh
