Scores of cane cutters from Albion Estate staged a spirited picketing exercise outside of the Estate’s Administrative Office this morning (August 03, 2017). The workers were protesting against the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) action to reassemble their working gangs namely:- 14A, 14B and 15A into one gang. This unilateral action will reduce the shop stewards service from nine (9) to three (3) workers over a workforce of approximately 700 cane cutters.
An official of the Corporation visited the Albion location on July 25, 2017 and merely informed the shop stewards of the Corporation’s decision. He refused to have an engagement with the stewards on the rationale for the decision. He told them, reportedly, in an unpleasant tone “that it was a Management decision”.
The large number of cane cutters are aware that their issues and problems which arise in the course of their work could not be effectively serviced by three (3) of their colleagues. This is the reason, over the past years, that their shop stewards ratio has been about 3 to 230 – 250 workers – a ratio which has been tested and which worked to date.
This newest intrusion onto the workers right by the ‘New GuySuCo’ is yet another rollback of their gains and is succeeding in promoting greater demotivation within the harassed workforce across the sugar belt. The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) calls on GuySuCo to engage immediately the Union and the shop stewards in earnest with a view to address the “gang merger”. The forceful merger, at this time, the commencement of the harvest of the industry’s second crop is a most negative approach by the duo IMC leaders and may not be taking the best interests of the industry into consideration.
