By Andrew Carmichael
Irate workers attached to the former Rose Hall Sugar Estate on Tuesday morning braved the inclement weather to protest for their severance payment as they demanded that the Government get its act together.
Eight hundred and fifty workers whose last day of employment was December 29, on Tuesday protested the non-payment of millions of dollars which are collectively owed to them by the David Granger Administration and the Guyana Sugar Corporation.
The workers protest action was endorsed by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), the Opposition People’s Progressive Party and several non-governmental organisations.
A one-minute of silence was held in honour of the two former workers who took their lives after being sent home. The workers claim that the Government has not treated them as it had treated Cabinet members who were given a 50 per cent salary increase while they (sugar workers) received no increases for two and a half years.
Region Six Chairman David Armogan, while addressing the rally, said it is time for all the people of East Canje and its environs to unite, claiming that the decision to send home close to 1000 workers was a political one.
He said if the Government is of the belief that the sugar estate needs to be closed in order to make the industry viable, then the welfare of the children of the affected community should be considered.
The Chairman noted that President Granger is expected to commission another school bus which will be used to take children to and from school in the Fyrish area which is considered A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) stronghold.
“Do something to help the children; do something to help the people, instead what they have to give they are giving to some of the people who are close to them; no consideration for the economic hardship that you will be facing,” Armogan told the gathering.
The Chairman noted that in communities with high levels of unemployment as is the case of East Canje now, is that you will have more crime and illiteracy. “Because children cannot go to school, you will have more prostitution, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and all sorts of problems in the home.”
Armogan is advocating that Government provide some form of social assistance so that the affected families could receive needed help.
He called on the community to support each other in these trying times. “We have to brace each other and support each other and we have to remain strong because in two years’ time (2020 elections) most of you will still be alive. Therefore you have to continue to go on with your lives. This period is going to pass.”
According to the Regional Chairman, GuySuCo has the capacity to turn around, adding that the problem with the sugar company is not an economic one but rather it was a political decision to send the workers home. The aim, he believes, was to destroy one of the PPP’s strongholds.
He pointed out that 5700 workers could have remained in their jobs if Government had put some of the money it spends on national holidays like Mashramani, into the sugar industry.
Meanwhile, GAWU’s General Secretary Seepaul Narine called on Government to make public its plans to get money to pay the workers their severance packages.
Narine said it is not too late for Government to withdraw the letters given to the workers.
Executive member of the PPP Juan Edghill who also marched with the workers and their families’ noted that many have been contemplating suicide. “I want to call upon all the religious leaders in this community, to give support; spiritual support as well as humanitarian support to the people of this community in this very difficult moment. The reason why I am appealing to our religious leaders is because yesterday afternoon, I saw with my own eyes and experienced for myself grown men telling me it makes no sense continuing to live.”
He urged them to keep the faith because better times lie ahead. Edghill said the community can assist the current situation as many are now unemployed. The PPP official encouraged those who have the ability to can take at least one child to school daily. He urged the women to continue to be vigilant.
Noting that there is a glut on the labour market and persons are now accepting low wages, Edghill called on contractors and other business persons to show compassion and not to exploit the situation.
Another party executive, Gail Teixeira lashed out at the current Administration saying that it did not keep its promise to workers. She said it promised a change while campaigning for the 2015 General and Regional Elections. The change we have seen, she said, is not the one that was promised.
GAWU’s President Komal Chan, in a very energetic presentation, also lashed out at the Government, starting with the Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan whom he accused of being behind the order not to allow the protesters to have music as they walked peacefully along the road. He said many others are being given permission to use loud music to advertise what they are doing.
“We have friends in the People’s Progressive Party; we have support from the business community; we have support from many journalists who saw things from the workers point of view, that today this issue is not only about sugar workers, and GAWU and GuySuCo but it has become a national issue. This, comrades, is a big development. Today it is being debated. All of the Government Ministers at the last budget (presentations) were forced to talk sugar.”
The GAWU President noted that another protest will be held on Thursday at Skeldon. While calling for support, he signalled to the Police that they should not prevent them from having musical complement.
The very Government which they are protesting against has withheld the annual one-month salary which the members of the Disciplined Forces had grown accustomed to at year end, but since the Government came into power it has been cut.
