GuySuCo misleading nation about production shortfall – GAWU

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) is accusing the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) of deliberately misleading the public relative to the shortfall in the first crop production.

GuySuCo, on Monday, announced that it had produced a total of 37,015 tonnes of sugar, the equivalent of 79.6 per cent of its first crop target in June. The sugar company noted that the intended target was 46,476 tonnes of sugar, and the shortfall is 9461 tonnes.
However, on Wednesday, GAWU said the state-owned sugar company had engaged in wanton disingenuousness as it sought to attribute another missed sugar target to its thousands of hard-working employees.
GAWU said it had drawn attention to this reality a few months ago, and noted that GuySuCo seeking to cover up its abysmal performance by blaming the workers, strikes, and COVID-19 is a poor excuse.
The corporation charged that strikes were responsible for the loss of 2,307 tonnes of sugar, and went at great lengths to illustrate the relationship between man-days lost and its equivalence in sugar and cash. GuySuCo has informed that, because of the strikes, some 13,868 man-days were lost, and based on that number, it meant that every single worker of the 8,000-person workforce would have been on strike for 1.7 days during the 18-week crop.
On that note, GAWU said this brings into question the credibility of the reported man-days lost.
The GAWU pointed out that no worker rationally wakes up in the pre-dawn hours, prepares for work, and often times takes the arduous journey to cane fields or factories, then chooses not to work. It related that workers’ protests come in response to unfair conditions of work imposed on them, which includes the wish to work and earn a fair day’s pay.
The Union noted that the Corporation, from all appearances, is upset by workers’ refusal to work during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reminded that the suspension of operations came after discussions between GAWU and GuySuCo at the central level in the presence of CEO Harold David.
“While the Corporation boldly highlights workers’ strikes and COVID-19 as causes for a loss of 2,307 tonnes sugar, it remains mum on the 7,154 tonnes that tally up to the total shortfall of 9,461 tonnes. We also recognise that the company claims it had some 66,000 tonnes of unharvested crop canes and it utilised 12.99 tonnes cane to produce 1 tonne sugar. With this in mind, it means that the unharvested canes could only yield 5,080 tonnes sugar. Using GuySuCo’s numbers, it is clear that cannot account for 2,074 tonnes of sugar, to arrive at the total shortfall of 9,461. It seems to us that the Corporation did not have the canes it said it had in the first place,” GAWU said in its statement.
The Union said that GuySuCo boasting of producing 1569 tonnes more molasses than anticipated is insignificant, since it is in the business of sugar production. It related that the reality of higher molasses production goes back to the efficiency of its factories, and clearly GuySuCo’s operational units are not maximising sugar recoveries and thus lending to greater quantities of molasses.
The Union added that it has been on record expressing concerns regarding the functioning of the industry’s factories.
“Clearly, what the Corporation is telling the public lacks coherence and logic when examined closely. While it seeks to blame the workers for its shortcomings, the reality paints a very different picture,” GAWU has said.
It expressed that the promise of better engagement with the Union is noted. GAWU criticised the Sugar Corporation for not keeping the Union and workers in the loop, explaining that they quite often learn about issues via the media and not the Corporation, as is the practice. It furthered that the Union would usually receive a copy of the Corporation’s production memorandum which provides certain details, but even that has not been forthcoming.
GAWU has consistently advocated relations based on mutual trust and respect, and expressed that it is deeply worried, given the sentiments and actions that were expressed and displayed by the sugar company. The Union said it finds it hard to rationalise that, on one hand, the Corporation wants good relations, but then, on the other hand, it seeks to malign and ascribe blame to the very workers who are responsible for its functioning.
The first crop was closed with 1093 hectares of carry-over canes to be harvested: 762 hectares at Albion/Port Mourant Estate, and 331 at Blairmont Estate. This translates to 66,000 tonnes of cane that will be carried over to the Second Crop of 2020.
GuySuCo said the actual sugar cane processed for the First Crop is 492,910, as against the budgeted 539,460. The budgeted molasses was 19,624 tonnes, while the actual production was 21,194 tonnes, a surplus of 1,569 tonnes.
Tonnes cane per tonnes sugar was budgeted at 11.61, but the actual was 12.99. (G2)