Several sections of the media have reported about the National Assembly’s unanimous approval of supplementary allocation in the sum of $2.451B. The now approved allocation will see the state-owned GuySuCo settling outstanding severance payments to thousands of workers who lost their jobs following the Government’s decision to close four (4) sugar estates over the last two (2) years. The approval of the sum came 306 days after Skeldon, Rose Hall, and East Demerara Estates were closed and 671 days after Wales Estate met a similar fate.
From the numbers, as reported by the Stabroek News, 5,016 workers are slated to receive payments from the now approved sum. Previously, several hundred workers from Wales were severed and paid during 2016 and 2017 by GuySuCo as the closure process at that estate commenced. When the LBI operations were ended in September, 2016, a number of other workers were also severed at that time, and just weeks prior to East Demerara’s closure in 2017, some other workers were also lost their jobs. Then they were several hundred temporary workers who did not receive severance payments after the Corporation refused to renew their contracts when it decided that the estates would be closed. When all is taken together we see the magnitude and the toll that the closure process has taken on so many ordinary Guyanese.
The approval of the sum which comes just a few days before the 2018 Local Government Elections will certainly bring some short-term relief to the beleaguered and largely jobless workers. The entire episode the GAWU recognizes too was most enlightening, especially for the workers and their families, and is a clear demonstration of the lengths those who hold the reins of power will go in order to stack the odds against the working-class. The naked flouting of our laws, which have been enacted to protect our people and to strengthen their hands, is a most worrying development in our contemporary times and is yet another manifestation of the lack of respect held by those in power for the rights of our country’s working-people.
This sad chapter of our history also reminds us that our successes can only come out of our united and consistent struggles. The Government’s reaction in this case, cannot be disconnected by the consistent struggle manifested in several picketing exercises, marches, public meetings, public statements, court actions, among other things that the workers, their families and their organisations have waged. The supportive voices of several prominent individuals and organsations also set fire under the Government’s feet and forced them to act at this time.
Of particular note is that the 350-odd cane cutters of Wales who, from all appearances, will receive their severance payments which have been unjustly withheld from them for nearly two (2) years now. This group of workers has been unfairly threatened with dismissal, have seen all manner of coercive ploys directed at them, and have simply been punished because they demanded was they rightly deserve. The fact that the Administration has decided to pay them, after their sustained calls for their rights to be respected, justifies that the workers and the Union were correct in their demands and throws cold water on the ignoble attempt to railroad the workers’ rights. The bitter-sweet victory of sorts for the workers demonstrates the importance of struggle to win out in our just demands but also sadly illustrates the attempts and lows that are being sunk to rollback workers’ rights and gains’
While we are happy that the workers will finally receive what is due to them, we cannot ignore the fact that they still remain without jobs or the prospect of securing jobs. The sums they will receive will be far from princely and cannot last forever. The Administration cannot abandon these thousands of Guyanese who still will face difficult times in the weeks and months ahead. We urge the Government to act responsibly.
