…PM, ministers tell Berbice sugar workers

DEFYING critics and a small band of picketers, a high-level delegation led by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo swung into the sugar belt in Berbice on Friday, assuring residents that their severance package is secured and that the government is solidly in support of them during this phase of the restructuring of the industry.

Nagamootoo was backed up by Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder and Junior Minister of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma. The team, especially the Prime Minister, was met with thunderous applause as they announced the commencement of full severance payment to the over 1600 redundant sugar workers from Enmore, Skeldon and Rose Hall Estates and 50 percent to around 3000 more. It is expected that all workers whose severance is $500,000 and lower will receive full payment, while those above will receive 50 percent on Tuesday and the remainder in the second half of the year.

The team spoke at two meetings in Skeldon and Rose Hall, delivering the same message to at times a cheerful crowd of sugar workers who braved the sweltering heat. The team’s first stop was at Skeldon, where arrangements had to be changed midstream to accommodate the large number of workers. The meeting started inside the hall at the estate, but many hundreds of workers turned up causing a shift to the outdoor.

DUCK NEVER QUACKED
Outside the estate- a small group of around 20 protesters organised by People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Members of Parliament, Adrian Anamayah and Harry Gill tried to break up the meeting while Nagamootoo was speaking but were challenged as the PM pilloried the opposition for its mismanagement of the industry. “Over $260 billion was used up by GuySuCo from 1996 to 2016…what the PPP Government has done with the money.

Where has the money gone?… Jagdeo said without Skeldon sugar is dead, he spent $50 billion alone on the dead duck that never quacked and sugar is still dying,” Nagamootoo told the gathering at Skeldon. He continued that the monies spent robbed teachers, pensioners and civil servants of increases and benefits, all because of bad management of the industry that was politically controlled.

The Prime Minster appealed to the sugar workers in East Berbice, Corentyne, to keep their hopes alive since the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) set up to handle the restructuring of the industry is currently engaged with 80 plus investors to find jobs for them. “Give us some time, we are doing the right things we are making the right decisions, we have done the correct thing, so keep faith, we want you to have confidence in the Government that we will not abandon you, we will not cut you loose and we will work on all fronts to bring about some benefits so you can start meaningful activities in your life and for your family,” Nagamootoo, son of the Corentyne soil said.

SUGAR WILL REMAIN
While noting that it’s a very difficult task for him to ask of the workers, the Prime Minister continued that the Government is in solidarity with them and has their best interests at heart. “It is the vision of the government to have the workers integrally involved in the operations of the industry. Since we came into power nothing has been more important on the agenda of the government than the fate of sugar workers and of the sugar industry.

We are not shutting down the sugar industry, GuySuCo will remain in sugar, it will concentrate on the estates that are productive,” the PM told the gathering at the Skeldon Estate. “We want a model where sugar workers must be given land to be able to participate in the growing of the sugar and selling it to the estate.

We want a model where sugar workers will be able to have at least one acre of land if you want to plant alternative crops, or if you want to get into cash crops or into aquaculture or attract investors for agro-processing…in Wales for example 30 percent and more of the cane for the factory is supplied by the sugar workers who plant the cane in their own plots of land and they supply the estate,” he continued.

CONSOLIDATION
Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder in his remarks reiterated that the sugar industry is not being closed, but rather it is being consolidated. This, he noted, was due to negligence of the previous administration. “No government wants to sever employees, but sometimes it’s the only answer especially given the financial and technical realities which confronted the industry; the government was forced to make this urgent decision on the way forward for sugar. The government inherited a sugar industry in deep crisis and an economy which did not have the reserves to carry the industry any longer, without causing serious pain to the rest of the country and economy.”

Holder said apart from paying the severance from Tuesday, $100 million will be set aside as revolving micro-loans which is accessible through the Small Business Bureau of the Ministry of Business and he urged the sugar workers to use the opportunity to pursue agricultural options. Junior Finance Minister, Jaipaul Sharma who gave a summary of the report into the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into sugar, lambasted the opposition for blaming the government, which he stated, gave in excess of $36.5 billion dollars in their 32 months in office as compared to $21.2 billion by previous administration in the last decade to bail out the sugar industry.

He highlighted the numerous shortcomings of the administration that led to the downfall of the industry, and highlighted the government’s commitment to continue to finance programmes for the benefit of the industry. The team met with workers attached to Skeldon and Rose Hall Estates at the Skeldon Community Centre Ground and The Rose Hall Community Centre Ground respectively, and were met with warmth and understanding,despite a small group of opposition protesters.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle after the meeting, the workers expressed satisfaction that the government was able to deliver as promised despite being told otherwise by the opposition.

“We glad the Prime Minster come himself and tell we the truth and we look forward to we money next week, because the PPP only telling lies and lies but how the government won’t pay or help sugar workers but now we know and understand better, “said Keron Bruce, while adding that the meeting should have happened before to prevent all the misconceptions being peddled by the opposition.