The Guyana Agriculture and General Workers Union (GAWU) said yesterday that it was not prepared to review its decision to call a one-week strike across the sugar industry before tomorrow.The one week-strike, which started Friday, effectively shut down the country’s struggling sugar industry as workers press for a concrete proposal by the sugar corporation for increased wages.GuySuCo’s weekly wage bill is US$1.5 million.The state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has implored GAWU to reconsider its position, fearing severe penalties if it were unable to meet market commitments in Europe and the Caribbean.“Whilst this strike will be in progress, the Corporation will be incurring heavy overhead expenses in some areas, without any revenue being generated, and as a consequence it may decide to temporarily cease all operations,Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys, except in cases of essential services, until the situation becomes normal,” GuySuCo stated.At the end of June, the Corporation had exported 76,000 tonnes of sugar, earning US$27.8 million, a decline of 21 percent for the same period last year.The strike by the industry’s 20,000 workers was called after GAWU said that the Corporation failed to put a concrete proposal for increased wages on the table.“What they are saying is that the industry must produce 270, 000 tonnes of sugar at the end of the year for them to afford any increase. That is not a proposal; realistically even 250,000 cannot be achieved,” Komal Chand, president of GAWU told Kaieteur News yesterday.Chand said that the production target cannot be met because of bad weather and the fact that a new multimillion dollar factory at Skeldon in the Berbice region is not operating up to scratch.The US$181 million Skeldon factory was commissioned in August 2009 and was hailed as the boon to the survival of the sugar industry, but GAWU said that the performance of the factory has diminished significantly— from crushing about 210 tonnes cane per hour to between 90 and 120 tonnes owing to severe worn-out hammers and leaking boiler tubes. The Union called for the factory to be shut down and the defects fixed.The Corporation has called the strike “a most callous and blatant disregard for the current state of the sugar industry.”As a result of the shutdown, sugar cane that would have produced 1,000 tonnes sugar were left to perish in the fields, GuySuCo said.“Such an incident is most unfortunate at a time when the Corporation is making all efforts to turn the industry around by increasing sugar production through increased cane supply,” the Corporation stated.GuySuCo said that it has managed to service its markets and creditors, meet its weekly wage bill which amounts to $300 million dollars on average, focus on the challenges at the Skeldon factory, continued to invest in its fields and other factories to improve production, and increase its mechanisation fleet to reduce the workload on the harvesters.It has also increased efficiency, ensured that the workers employment are secured, focused on the daily challenges on each estate including numerous strikes, and tried to work around as best as possible the effects of both the dry (El Nino) and wet weather (La Nina) conditions.The results are that there is enough canes in the fields to even surpass the revised target of 264,000 tonnes and 2011 will see a further increase in this regard, according to GuySuCo.“GuySuCo has managed this in light of constant criticisms from several quarters but nevertheless remains committed and undaunted in its effort to ensure the future of the industry is secured for our workers and other stakeholders.”The Corporation has a contractual marketing commitment to the EU and CARICOM to deliver sugar to these markets not later than December 31, this year; failing which, severe penalties will be imposed.Whilst this strike will be in progress, the Corporation will be incurring heavy overhead expenses in some areas, without any revenue being generated, and as a consequence it may decide to temporarily cease all operations, except in cases of essential services, until the situation becomes normal.
