This morning (November 07, 2019), the workers of Albion Estate, by and large, downed tools as they heightened their calls for a pay rise this year. The workers contend that it is far too long that they have been without any rise in pay while the cost-of-living, it is generally accepted, has risen significantly in the last few years. As has been pointed out so often, the sugar workers remain the only group of workers who have not gotten a cent as pay rise since the Coalition Government took office.
Declines in the real and nominal incomes of sugar workers have been a most difficult pill to swallow for the workers and their families. They have had to really curtail their living standards as they seek to live within their new means. The workers shared that it is deeply upsetting to them that the Government, it appears, has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to their plight. They pointed out that the Coalition has promised to increase State workers pay this year and they said, it appeared, a bonus also may be paid at the year-end too. They said they are not begrudging the workers who really are deserving of increases and much more, but they questioned: Aren’t they similarly deserving.
The workers reminded that in the period leading up to the 2015 National and Regional elections, now governmental officials told them they were underpaid and they deserved much higher increases in their rates-of-pay. They said they heard quite often and regularly the talk of a 20 per cent wage increase. This, of course, turned out to be a mirage and instead they have faced assault after assault.
The situation for the workers has also had its impact on the communities. The reduction in incomes has reduced consumption which has affected the shopkeepers, the greens vendors, the fishermen, the bus and taxi operators, and so many more. It is a stark reminder of the importance of the sugar industry in rural Guyana where job opportunities are limited and usually concentrated just around one or two endeavours.
The workers, at this time, remain hopeful that something could be done to really alleviate their situation. They are really hard-pressed with the circumstances of now-a-day. They look to those in authority to consider their plight and seek to assuage the situation of their families as they stare impoverishment in the eye.
