GUYSUCO Warns Sugar Workers Against Further Industrial Action

GEORGETOWN, Guyana CMC – The cash-strapped Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) is warning of a “grim Christmas for sugar workers” if they embark on further industrial action in a bid to force management to hold talks on salary increases.

GUYSUCO Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Errol Hanoman. Photo courtesy of Guyana government.

Last month, the sugar workers downed tools in support of their bargaining agent, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), that called for negotiations for a nine per cent wage increase even as the company awaits the government’s consideration of a Commission of Inquiry (COI) report into the state-owned sugar company.

There’s speculation that GAWU could intensify the industrial action.

But GUYSUCO warned “if protest action continues, it could spell a grim Christmas for sugar workers and their families”,

The statement quoted GUYSUCO Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Errol Hanoman, as saying it will make no sense to call another strike in which the workers would lose more pay and the sugar corporation would produce less of the commodity.

“Tremendous goodwill was built up over the past few weeks as the industry surpassed its production targets,” GUYSUCO said, adding that its chief executive officer has cautioned the union and its membership “against the loss of this goodwill which would accompany protest action at this time”.

Hanoman said that the workers and the union should ensure a successful 2015 crop.

“Let us not be hasty.   There will be negotiations, just not today.  He asked that everyone focus their energies on a good outcome in the evolving road map for the industry,” the GUYSUCO statement noted.

It quoted Hanoman as saying that the Government, GUYSUCO’s sole shareholder, is supportive of the sugar industry and is keen to consider any plan that would ensure its survival and sustainability.