Dear Editor,
Head of the sugar Special Purpose Unit (SPU), Mr Colvin Heath-London in an article entitled ‘GuySuCo operating in rogue manner’ which appeared in the Guyana Chronicle of December 7, 2017 is reported to have said “…unlike what GAWU and the PPP want others to believe, the sugar industry is not wholly an Indo-Guyanese sector”. We find Mr Heath-London’s reported statement untrue and misleading.
As a responsible organization, we wish to advise Mr Heath-London and the Guyanese public that our union has never argued that the industry’s workforce is largely Indo-Guyanese. Our contentions have always been centred around the effects of the plans to minimize the industry on the workers irrespective of race, geography, sex, religion and any other factor.
Some persons have argued along the lines Mr Heath-London espoused, but such sentiments have never been expressed by GAWU and the PPP/C as a far as we are aware. We hasten to point out that the White Paper on the Future of the Sugar Industry in Guyana dated March 16, 2017 which was not released publicly but which our union obtained a copy of, contained sentiments similar to those referred to by Mr Heath-London. We recall a known supporter of the administration also making similar statements as well.
We hope that this would clear up any misconception in Mr Heath-London’s mind as we see many of the sentiments we expressed were also shared by him in the December 7 article.
Yours faithfully,
Seepaul Narine
General Secretary
GAWU
