…says GAWU agreed on preferential severance payment
…ministers rush to Enmore, residents reject team
By Michael Younge
The signs that the Government is buckling under severe pressure were evident on Friday morning when a high-level Government team led by Third Vice President Khemraj Ramjattan rushed to Enmore, on the East Coast Demerara, to address irate workers who were extremely angry and concerned over the non-payment of
Some of the protesters at Enmore, East Coast Demerara
their full severance packages to date, and a decision by the Government to downsize the sugar industry.
The team, which also included Business and Tourism Minister Dominic Gaskin; Public Telecommunications Minister Catherine Hughes; Citizenship Minister Winston Felix; and Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, met workers at the Enmore Training Centre and Staff Club.
The ministers were accompanied by a representative of the Government’s Special Purposes Unit, GuySuCo’s Acting Chief Executive Officer Paul Bhim, and other senior officials.
A large portion of the workers picketed the team led by Ramjattan as it made its way into the venue for the meeting. Some of the workers objected to the presence
Several protesters marching
of Ramjattan in particular in their community, as they lashed out at him for joining with the APNU to sabotage their livelihoods.
“We don’t want them here! Why only now they decide to come and face we? Dem done tek bread outta we mouth, and now them could to sweet talk we! It can’t wuk suh! We want we full severance, and we want we benefits!” a 52-year-old sugar worker attached to the Enmore Factory declared.
“I don’t care what Mr Ramjattan come fuh say! I ain’t voting for them no more! Them man dis nah got shame! We know dem banna coulda save deh industry, but is bare politics them a play! I neva dream deh day we woulda end up jobless after my whole family wuk and sweat to develop Guyana!” Rakesh Singh related as he stood on the picket line.
Other workers said they are not concerned about the politics surrounding the issue, but they are affected because they are unable to provide for their families.
“I am concerned about my children’s future! This Government did not treat us nicely, and I think is because they underestimate our strength; but we learn hard this time. We don’t want Ramjattan nor Moses here!” Amrita Persaud shouted.
No choice
Meanwhile, as desperation stepped in, Vice President Ramjattan explained that the Government had no other choice but to make the “hard decision”. He admitted that challenging days are ahead for the sugar industry. He remarked that times are changing globally, and had Guyana responded at the right time and in the right manner, the dynamics of the sugar industry would have been very different now.
Ramjattan, Chairman of the Alliance For Change — which forms part of the governing Coalition Administration — told workers that the former Administration had received some 70 million Euros from the European Union in 2006, following the 2003 price cuts and the phasing out of preferential quotas of sugar from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP); and he questioned what was done with that money, after insinuating that it did not go to the industry at all.
The price cuts and end of the preferential treatment, he explained, came as a result of action by Brazil, Thailand and Australia, which took the ACP countries to the World Trade Organisation, demanding fair trade and a level playing field.
Turning to more statistics, the Vice President said the current Administration had expended some $32 billion since 2015 to bail out the sugar industry and meet its wage bill of close to $350 million per week. He said closure of estates was not new, as it has happened before.
In a bid to justify the Government’s delay in paying workers’ their severance at the time of dismissal, Ramjattan made reference to a case involving Trinidad and Tobago, where dismissed workers in that country’s sugar industry allegedly had to wait close to two years before they could receive their severance pay.
He quickly changed gear, and this time ran to the rescue of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) as workers expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which that union had handled the issue.
“We begged GAWU and we invited NAAICE to come and talk to us…and they did,” Ramjattan said, before being interrupted by a worker who shouted, “But they sell we out!”
In response, a visibly upset and embarrassed Ramjattan responded, “No! It cannot be said that way…GAWU is a responsible…they understand…putting (it) the way the polarization of hate and the purveyors of hate…and you got some of them here (who) will say that they sell us out…they did not…they understand the crisis that we have at hand, and they, too, realize that just as how you close Port Mourant years ago, Belladrum, Lenora and LBI…the things need certain closures…”
When workers resisted his suggestion and explanations, the Vice President invoked religion, saying that somehow, the failure of sugar could have been part of a divine plan.
“So it’s important to understand that hard decisions have to be made, and we are (the) ones that will (have) to make it…probably it was destined to have to fail. Probably God wanted it that way, and we have to make the decisions now…Probably that is why God also said let (them) find the oil under this Administration, and we have found it”, he remarked.
The Vice President admitted that, somehow, the unions were part of, or suggested the preferential payment of severance to workers, following a meeting organised by President David Granger.
“We are even speaking with the GAWU and NAAICE on all these matters, and it appears that the Opposition does not want to hear us…but let me say this… we are here to say (to) everyone that would like to listen to us and give suggestions…they (GAWU) came up with a suggestion recently after the President asked them to meet us. And then we decided all under $500,000 are going to get their full lump sums, and that is what we are going to do…,” he said.
The workers left the meeting disappointed but satisfied that at least some of their severance, if not all, will be paid on Monday.
“If they ain’t pay we Monday or next, or don’t come good, is another story,” a woman who described herself as “Aunty Baby” remarked at the end of the engagement.
