Outlining a six-point plan for thousands of laid off sugar workers, including land for them to earn a livelihood, commentator Christopher Ram yesterday waded into the unions that represent them, government, GuySuCo and the former PPP/C administration for the state of the industry.
“GuySuCo and sugar are not just a company, it is part of the economy, part of our culture, part of the fabric of our society…this is a sector that has carried this country since little after its discovery,” Ram told attendees at the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana’s (FITUG) 6th Delegates Conference, which was held at the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union head office in High Street, Kingston, Georgetown,
He said that from estimations, when “the so-called reorganisation of the State-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation is completed” approximately ten thousand persons, whose only job-skills were learnt during sometimes decades of work, the nature of which has changed little since slavery, will have been put on the breadline to eke out a living along with approximately forty to fifty thousand dependents.
