GAWU celebrates 45 years as a bargaining agent in sugar industry

On Friday, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) observed 45 years as the bargaining agent in the sugar industry.
The inking of the agreement cemented GAWU’s status as the bargaining agent on behalf of the field and factory workers in the sugar industry. It also culminated some three decades of struggle for the GAWU to speak on the workers’ behalf.
According to GAWU, their workers struggled to have GAWU as their Union, and it began in 1946 with the establishment of the Guiana Industrial Workers Union (GIWU). The establishment of the GIWU arose after workers became disillusioned with the Man Power Citizens Association (MPCA) which was recognised a few years prior but had quickly lost credibility among the workforce.
An early highpoint in the recognition struggle took place at Enmore where workers protested along the East Coast of Demerara over the imposition of the cut and load system grew and saw workers, among other things, demanding the recognition of the GIWU. That struggle was supported by the leaders of the GIWU and the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), Dr Cheddi Jagan and his wife, who played an active role in providing leadership and other tangible support to the workers.
A fever pitch was reached on June 16, 1948, when five workers were shot by the colonial police at the behest of the plantocracy. Those five workers who are nationally celebrated as the Enmore Martyrs, inspired a new wave of struggles that ultimately led to Guyana’s independence.
Another inflexion point was reached when Kowsilla, who was supporting a strike by the sugar workers at the Leonora Estate, was crushed to death. Kowsilla and others had lent their solidarity to striking workers.
“A foreign manager instructed a scab to drive a tractor across the factory bridge where Kowsilla and others were standing. In the melee, Kowsilla was crushed while several others were injured, some for life. Today Kowsilla is regarded as a heroine of the sugar workers,” GAWU said in a statement.
The struggle continued and workers supportive of GAWU were, at times, harassed, intimidated and even faced incarceration.
Since the inking of the Recognition Agreement, the GAWU has continued to advance the lot of the sugar workers.
“Several advances were recorded and a number of benefits are now enjoyed by the workers. The active work of the Union has seen workers from other sectors joining the GAWU fold and the Union speaks on behalf of workers in several important sectors at this time,” the statement read.
GAWU said the Union remains firm in its defence of workers and has sought to advance their well-being not only at the bargaining table but through advocacy of enhanced protections and adjustments to alleviate the cost-of-living.
“Our principled actions earned us the ire of the then coalition Government which sought to downsize the sugar industry without regard to the social implications. Our strong advocacy brought us several allies who also spoke up on behalf of the sugar workers while earning the then Government a permanent place in the hall of infamy,” they said.
GAWU’s continued advocacy saw the new Government, immediately upon its assumption to office, beginning a process to re-open three of the four estates closed by its predecessor. This is currently an ongoing process and has rekindled hope among those who were thrown on the breadline mercilessly.