Albion sugar workers down tools to protest poor field conditions

Scores of cane harvesters attached to the Albion Sugar Estate downed tools on Friday morning to stage a protest over what they claimed is poor working conditions in the fields.
Moreover, the workers have raised concerns over the recorded weight of the cane on the scales, contending that the figures are considerably lower than what they know they had harvested.
The workers staged their protest at Adelphi, East Canje.
These workers are from the Rose Hall Sugar Estate but were not sent home when that Estate was closed and as such, they were transferred to the Albion Estate. They form harvesting gang 17 B which has in excess of 300 harvesters, making it the largest harvesting gang at the Estate.
However, they are crying discrimination, contending that none of the other gangs have to work under the conditions which they are forced to endure.
They also claim that they are being sent to the worst fields to harvest sugar cane. According to the workers, because of the poor weight of the cane recorded, many of them take home measly wages.
But the workers are contending that the weight recorded does not reflect the actual amount they had harvested.
Payslips seen by Guyana Times showed that many of the workers are working for below the minimum wage. This, they say, is unfair since they are in the fields before 05:00h.
One harvester, Rajpaul Persaud, explained that last week he worked five days and earned $5000.
“When I carry home the money, my wife asked me what she can buy with this money. This week I cut cane from 5 o’clock in the morning till 12 o’clock and I only get 2.2 tons one day, 2.3 tons the next day,” he said as he showed this publication all of his slips indicating the weight of cane he and his two other team members would have cut for the day.
The workers are paid $1100 to cut and load a ton of cane and $800 per ton if the bell loader is going to load the cane in the punt. They claimed that they would normally get in excess of three tons from each bed cut and a group of three is given two or three beds per day.
With a weight of 2.2 tons, Persaud and his two teammates would have collectively earned $2420, or $807 each for the day.
Meanwhile, the fields, harvesters say, have thick overgrowth. In the past, arrangements were in place for harvesters to be paid at a premium price when there were obstacles in the cane field. These would include vines and other forms of vegetation.
According to another harvester, George Southwell, there is thick vegetation in the fields at East Canje.
“We don’t have anybody who we can carry our problem to… If you come to the backdam and see, if a bird fly through it would hook up. Al I am seeing is that GuySuCo getting from bad to worst. I am asking if they can pay me off and I can come out from this system. The Union that represents us is not doing its job. They came and asked us to go to Albion and promised to look into our affairs but they never came to see what is going on,” Southwell stated.
Meanwhile, Mahindra Kuldeep said during the out of crop period he was forced to perform construction to make money to take care of his family.
“You have years of service and don’t want to lose, so, that is why I come back. They reduce the crop from twenty to twelve weeks. The crop would finish long before Christmas. What will we do,” he asked.
The workers had staged two days of strike action last week and returned to work on Monday, hoping that the scale at the factory would have recorded weights which would have made them pleased.
Guyana Times understands that bell loader operators also went on strike on Friday, complaining of the weight being recorded when the cane is taken to the factory.
Efforts to get a comment from the workers’ representative proved futile. No comment was forthcoming from GuySuCo either.