Workers from the Albion sugar estate, who engaged in strike action on Thursday, resumed work yesterday after having a discussion with the management.
The workers were protesting issues relating to changes in the estate’s weekly production targets, hours of work and increase in wages, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) said in a statement yesterday.
On Thursday, the first scheduled day of harvesting of sugarcane for the second crop, workers from all the gangs of the Albion Estate downed their tools, which severely affected operations at the estate, GAWU said. According to the union, the workers are calling on the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to address an increase in wages.
“It cannot be forgotten that sugar workers’ wages have been frozen since 2015. The naked discrimination against this hardworking group of the state’s employees manifested through denials of pay increases and attacks on long standing benefits and conditions coupled with an ever rising tax burden, among the other hardships of contemporary Guyanese life, have severely eroded the workers and their families purchasing power and by extension, their standard of living,” the statement said.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday afternoon, GuySuCo’s Corporate Communications Manager Audreyanna Thomas said that the workers resumed their work yesterday after having a discussion with management.
In relation to the wage increase being pressed for, Thomas said that in 2018, GuySuCo had bilateral discussions with GAWU and the Department of Labour of the Ministry of Social Protection, but those discussions reached a deadlock.
Thomas added that GuySuCo has not received any proposals for salary increases for 2019 from GAWU.
Meanwhile, GAWU’s statement said that workers are peeved over the arbitrary increase of the estate’s weekly production targets. The workers allegedly contended that the increase from 2,100 tonnes of sugar to 2,140 would be disadvantageous and will prevent the estate from realising the target, and as a result, affect incentives that are attached to it.
“The workers argue, quite correctly, that the inability to achieve target through the arbitrary increase could well daunt their commitment and belie the notion of the incentive in the first place,” GAWU said.
However, Thomas said that the increase is part of GuySuCo’s reorganisation programme to increase its efficiency. “GAWU cannot say we must become more efficient and still want workers to operate [inefficiently]. Last year, for the second crop, the workers achieved 2,200 tonnes per week,” she said, while adding that even with the increased tonnage, the workers should be able to attain the numbers and get their incentives.
GAWU also said that workers engaged in the mechanical loading of canes are upset with what they believe is an unnecessary change in their hours of work.
According to the statement, the bell cane loader operators would usually work from 6 am to 6 pm during the cropping period. However, GuySuCo, “without rhyme or reason and in ignorance of the workers concerns” are now requiring the operators to work from 10 am to 10 pm, it said.
As it relates to the change in shift, Thomas said that the move is one that is being made to optimise the efficiency of the estate. She said that on the normal 6 pm to 6 pm shift, the workers would have to wait about two hours until the cane harvesters harvested enough canes for them to load.
The change to 10 am to 10 pm was only a proposal and the new shift will be from 8 am to 8 pm, she emphasised.
GAWU’s statement said another issue for workers relates to those engaged in the mechanical tillage tasks, who have disagreed with the arbitrary downward adjustments of their pay rates pertaining to certain tasks.
“The rates, we didn’t adjust downwards. The rates they are getting now is what the Collective Labour Agreement between GuySuCo and GAWU had agreed and we had to make those adjustments,” Thomas responded, when asked.
According to GAWU, “…the several matters and concerns which, it seems, are not being sincerely considered by the GuySuCo have deeply upset the workers. They charged that they continue to give their best effort and seek, at all times, to go above and beyond and yet, it appears, they are treated in the shabbiest of manners. This is not a healthy development and we are hopeful that the corporation will, with an open mind and listening ear, consider the workers’ cries.”
The statement said that GAWU is waiting to have a meeting with the Industrial Relations Department of GuySuCo to address the matters.
Thomas said there was a meeting between the union and management last Thursday.
“The Albion factory, we have done a lot of rehabilitation works and that is why we have changed the targets. Albion Estate will be producing white sugar and in order to produce the sugar, we have to improve the efficiency of the estate. We made a lot of investments in terms of new tractors for tillage, we’ve improved the number four mill so that they can have better extraction, worked on the juice heaters to improve its efficiency,” Thomas said, while noting that they will also be looking towards increasing their grinding hours from 140 per week to suit the factory’s capacity of 168 hours per week.
