Transferred Rose Hall workers protest ahead of estate’s reopening

– call for packages similar to that given to sacked sugar workers
– GAWU says workers have been asked to voluntarily return to estate

Workers attached to the Albion and Blairmount Sugar Estates in Berbice on Wednesday protested the conditions under which they are being asked to return to the Rose Hall Estate, which is scheduled to be reopened next month.
Workers’ protest action came on the heels of a high-level meeting between the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), which represents the workers, and management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) on Tuesday.
Held at the Albion Estate on the Corentyne Coast, that meeting was aimed at discussing harvesting strategies for the Rose Hall Estate, which is expected to commence grinding operations on September 16. Attending that meeting were GAWU President Seepaul Narine and other union officials and field secretaries from the Blairmont, Rose Hall and Albion Estates.

In January 2017, when that estate was shut down by the APNU/AFC coalition Government, there were some 2500 workers at the Rose Hall Estate, 1,181 of whom were retrenched, while the remainder were transferred to Blairmont and Albion Estates.
The retrenched workers were subsequently given a severance package.
Now as the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Government seeks to reopen the Rose Hall Estate, the transferred workers are being asked to return to Rose Hall.
Those workers are, however, demanding a package, claiming that many of the retrenched workers who had received a severance package have already been rehired by Rose Hall.
Last Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha told the National Assembly that 1,100 workers have already been rehired. However, on Wednesday, 78 harvesters and 28 planters from the Albion Estate, along with 120 harvesters from the Blairmont Estate, assembled at Number Two Village in East Canje, threatening not to return to work until their concerns are addressed.

Omadatt Seecharran, representative of the 15B gang, which consists of the transferred harvesters at Albion, explained that they were told that the plan is to relocate 140 cane harvesters from the Albion Estate and a further 130 from Blairmont Estate to work at Rose Hall for the crop, which is expected to last between five and six weeks. He said this information was subsequently passed on to the workers.
“They don’t want to come and cut no cane at Rose Hall,” he noted.
Seecharran related that since being transferred, the workers have been fighting to get a package similar to what had been given to the retrenched workers.
In addition, one of the protestors from Albion, Kepie Dennis, said he was told on Wednesday morning that there was a request to have them return to the Rose Hall Estate.
“It is unfair to us to go back to an estate which was closed and pay off workers, and now reopening and want us to go there to work,” he said, while adding that they are seeking the intervention of either the President or Vice President of the country. Denis added that the workers want a severance package.
“This issue was pending for a very long time. We went to the Labour Minister Mr Harmon. I want to know what Mr Harmon is doing, because this matter went to him several times. We, the frustrated workers, are not cutting no cane till Mr Bharrat Jagdeo and President Ali solve our concerns,” he added.
Meanwhile, GAWU says it did not back the strike. Despite the strike, other cane harvesters continued working as usual. GAWU held out that the workers requested packages, but have not stated exactly what they are expecting.
GAWU has told Guyana Times that Monday’s meeting will continue, since no agreement has been reached.
GAWU said the workers have been asked to voluntarily return to the Rose Hall Estate, noting that they will still be entitled to any incentives earned by either the Albion or Blairmont Estates.
According to the Union, it is still to meet with GuySuCo to discuss additional benefits for transferred planters at the Blairmont Estate and the two-hour handover time between shifts, concerns which are currently causing a loss in production time. (Andrew Carmichael)