Police break up illegal march:
Labour Ministry to intervene in Wales strike
Guyana Chronicle
October 15, 2003
THE police yesterday stopped an illegal march of persons, some of whom were workers attached to Wales Sugar Estate on the West Bank, Demerara, as they headed for Georgetown.
The march, agitated by Justice For All Leader C.N. Sharma, emanated from a dispute between workers and management of the sugar factory in relation to the installation of a new chute which the workers said have been brewing for nearly a month now, with no redress from the management of GUYSUCO.
The Ministry of Labour will today convene a meeting between the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) and the workers' union, Guyana Agricultural and General Workers' Union (GAWU), to discuss terms of resumption.
GAWU said that since the strike started the union, at the central level, has been unable to get GUYSUCO to meet and discuss the grievance. GUYSUCO, on the other hand, has said that the workers must return to work before discussion between the two sides can take place, free from duress.
The union added that without an engagement with GUYSUCO, it would be unable to find a resolution to the dispute, but charged that it would seem that there are elements working to keep the strike alive and agitate the workers to engage in extra-industrial actions. "Without an engagement with GUYSUCO, the union will be unable to deal with the dispute with a view to finding a solution."
Prior to the workers' action through their elected representatives or shop stewards, the workers had met with the factory manager on the performance of the chute, and they agreed to allow some time to pass with a view to correct what both parties agreed were "teething troubles," GAWU said.
"The strike started without the grievance being placed in the hands of the union at the central level for representation to GUYSUCO's Industrial Relations Department," the union claimed. It said "it is the responsibility of the shop stewards to inform the union centrally that discussions between them and the factory manager have been deadlocked and to allow union officials to follow up the dispute at the next stage of the grievance procedure."
The union is calling on employees to resume work so that a solution to the dispute can be found.
GUYSUCO in a statement yesterday pointed out that the "workers resorted to industrial action without fully representing the matter to management either at the estate or central level, which is a blatant disregard of the established grievance procedure."
GUYSUCO urged that the "workers allow good sense and judgment to prevail and endeavour to resume work to facilitate discussions between the corporation and the union."
According to a statement by the Guyana Police Force, 13 persons, including the Justice For All Leader, were taken into police custody following the illegal march.
The police statement said: "The actions of this crowd started about 09:00h yesterday at the Wales Public Road in front of the Estate...blocking the road in the process...The police yesterday spoke with the workers, pleaded and advised the crowd not to block the road and after sometime, they complied and cleared the road."
Added the statement: "Today again they assembled and blocked the road. The police continually spoke to them but they refused to comply and attempted to unload a tractor trailer to use to block the road while they began marching to Georgetown...After numerous pleadings and warnings, the police were forced to use tear smoke to disperse the crowd, which had swollen to about 300 persons."
"The Guyana Police Force wishes to make it clear that the march was an illegal one and the Police had to take action to stop it," the police release added.
Chronicle understands that about half of the persons arrested are in no way related to the sugar industry.
While in custody, the Chronicle understands that Sharma requested to go West Demerara Regional Hospital complaining that he was a diabetic. However, at the West Demerara Hospital he refused any medical attention and asked to be taken to a private hospital in Georgetown to which he was taken.
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