During a meeting held with a team from the International Monetary Fund to discuss the sugar industry, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) yesterday expressed its concern on the structural changes occurring within the industry.
According to a press release from GAWU, its team consisted of its Assistant General Secretary, Aslim Singh and included the Union’s Organising Officer, Porandatt Narine and Executive Committee member, Gordon Thomas. The GAWU team engaged with a six-person team from IMF that is currently in Guyana to undertake the Fund’s annual Article IV consultation.
The main focus of the discussion regarding the structural changes of the sugar industry, GAWU said. GAWU expressed concern regarding what it termed the “two-pronged approach” adopted by the Government of Guyana. The GAWU team explained that one prong concerned the divestment of three of the closed estates namely Skeldon, Rose Hall, and East Demerara Estates and the other aspect regarded the re-capitalisation of the estates under the control of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
With respect to the divestment approach, the GAWU expressed concern that the process appeared to lack transparency.
“We pointed out that the divestment would possibly be the largest in the nation’s history yet the Guyanese people were none the wiser about the value of the assets being put up for sale. Moreover, we reminded the IMF that its 2017 Article IV report on Guyana had urged the government to ensure that displaced sugar workers be protected by appropriate safety nets,” GAWU said. It continued, “This suggestion, we hastened to point out, was not considered as apart from the statutory severance payments to workers, which we reminded were illegally withheld and corrected following the intervention of the Courts.”
The Union further opined that there is hardly, if any, tangible expression of the state’s assistance to the workers and communities affected and pointed out that, since the estates’ closures, many affected persons remain “hard pressed” and find themselves in difficult and miserable situations, with unemployment remaining an issue.
Turning to the plans to recapitalise the operable estates, GAWU stressed its concerns about the apparent absence of a plan to guide the large sum secured.
“We shared that, on several occasions, we asked the GuySuCo about its plan, only to receive deafening silence. The GAWU expressed that it recognised President David Granger just last week [referred] to a plan. We noted that the President had said, according to media reports we saw, that the Corporation was not operating by guesswork or hunches. Nevertheless, we shared our apprehensions that despite what, we believe, are our good intentioned best efforts we remain shut out from being knowledgeable about the Corporation’s plans.”
Furthermore, the IMF team also sought GAWU’s views about happenings in other areas of the agricultural sector. In turn, GAWU shared its views on the rice, poultry and fishing industries, as well as the emerging oil and gas industry. On the latter industry, GAWU shared its view that it appeared it was least prepared at this time to effectively deal with the industry and what it could bring to the proverbial table.
“We also shared views about the possibility of inequality between the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy and its ramifications for wider societal issues,” the Union added.
According to GAWU, the IMF team welcomed its “forthright expressions” and committed to further examining raised suggestions.
