Sugar conundrum
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
November 3, 2006
GIVEN their historical relationship, it may have come as a surprise that a top government official yesterday came out strongly, rapping its main labour ally about going on strike for more pay in the critical sugar industry.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, was blunt about the strike sanctioned by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and NAACIE (the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees).
“Sadly, the strike action by the workers organized by both GAWU and NAACIE is unhelpful and is neither in the interest of the industry, the workers themselves nor the economy,” Dr Luncheon told reporters.
“What the workers are demanding is unsustainable; what the (sugar) corporation is offering is also unsustainable but is being offered in the interest of industrial peace and ensuring success with the implementation and outcome of the strategic development plan for sugar in Guyana,” he added.
The two-day strike ended yesterday with the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) putting up a fresh proposal for more pay for sugar workers and the parties are to meet on the matter today.
Without getting into the intricacies of what is being offered and what is not being offered in terms of the wage increase, Dr Luncheon said: “…clearly the financial data on the performance of the sector and even more importantly, the financial data, as premature as it is, that is being made available dealing with the consequences of last week’s withdrawal of labour and this week (strike action) all contributed to this sense of foreboding that indeed we are pushing closer and closer to the limits of sustainability in a sector that a tremendous of capital – financial, human resources, political - has been invested to reform sugar in Guyana.”
“And this is why we are insisting that this is a time for sober adjustments and well considered actions in this very pivotal point and time in our industry,” he added.
Whether GAWU leaders would be chastened by this rapping on the wrist from an administration with which it has close ties, remains to be seen but Dr Luncheon’s admonitions make sense.
Sugar in Guyana is in a crisis and the cuts in the preferential prices long offered by the European Union have forced some countries to abandon the crop all together, putting thousands out of work.
The government here has stressed that sugar, on which thousands depend for a living, can survive as long as Guyana can compete on the international market.
Crucial to this is keeping production costs down and as finely balanced as it is now, the industry cannot afford costly strikes.
It must have been hard for as senior a government official as Dr Luncheon to have come out in open criticism of close allies GAWU and NAACIE, but the harsh realities of the situation have to be faced.
There is too much at stake to resort to actions that can jeopardise as crucial a sector as sugar and every avenue has to be explored before extreme steps are resorted to.
This is indeed a time for sober adjustments and well considered actions.