Enmore sugar workers on strike; AFC denies encouraging industrial unrest
Written by Denis Scott Chabrol
Thursday, 08 March 2012 10:18

http://www.demerarawaves.com/i...dustrial-unrest.html

AFC representatives Kissoon and Ramsaroop speaking with Enmore estate sugar workers Thursday morning.

Even as Enmore sugar estate workers on Thursday went on strike to protest the unsatisfactory payment of Social Security benefits, the Alliance For Change (AFC) denied it was backing restive conditions in the cash-strapped low-producing state-run Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco).

“We are definitely not encouraging the workers to strike but we are there on fact-finding missions because we are compiling a dossier of all the issues in the sugar industry so that we can also make representation to the relevant authorities to try to get improvements in the sugar industry,” said AFC executive member, Gerhard Ramsaroop.

Ramsaroop and political activist Freddie Kissoon early Thursday morning met with an estimated 100 Enmore estate workers who downed tools, demanding more sickness benefits from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) after sustaining injuries on the job and otherwise falling ill.

Seetaram Bramnarain told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com) that since he fell in a punt and severely injured his right foot on December 20, he has been paid sickness benefits for only 10 days. “Until now I can’t work and my foot swell and my whole one-side paining me,” he said. “I’m the only breadwinner for my house, I have my daughter to send to school, I have my wife to maintain, I have my bills to pay and I ain’t got any income,” he added.

Cane harvesters earn an estimated GUY$5,000 daily. One of the workers’ representatives, Adul Rahaman Kadir, told DemWaves that NIS has been foot-dragging in processing and paying claims, in some instances taking as many as four months. “The workers at this point in time are dissatisfied with the way how NIS is handling their situation,” he said. “It seems to me that NIS only receive this money from the employer and cannot give the workers the benefits that they need,” said Kadir.

Mohammed Ali, whose left leg has been badly injured on the job since June last year, said NIS paid him benefits for six months and then stopped doing so. “I fell down at the workplace. The board slide and I fall in the punt and it knock me on the punt edge and break down,” said Ali whose leg has been fitted with an external fixator.

AFC executive member, Ramsaroop explained that his party’s activism in the sugar belt was aimed at strengthening the voices of people who are venting their frustration over several grievances. He explained that while his part was keen on ensuring the survival of the sugar industry as part of a long-term goal to produce ethanol, the AFC was agitating for an end to waste and mismanagement at Guysuco. “That does not mean that you will tolerate bad practices and it does not absolve management from wasteful practices.”

Ramsaroop said fellow executive member, Moses Nagamootoo has been tasked with compiling a dossier of grievances among sugar workers. The party has already started making representations to the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) –aligned Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) to address several of the grievances.

Government has accused the political opposition of inserting itself into the industrial unrest affecting the sugar industry, saying that it is counter-productive and in no way mirrors the PPP’s fight during its time out of government.

Keep up he good work GR

"he only received the equivalent of ten days pay, some $24,000"

No wonder they have to wear the FREE PPP T shirt

quote:

Cane harvesters earn an estimated GUY$5,000 daily. 

That is 25US per day, pretty high for a 3rd world nation. I thought the naysayers were arguing that Guyana was below $2 US per day.

No wonder the sugar industry can not show a profit with such high 3rd world wages. Mechanization is the only way forward to ensure the survival of the industry.

Gmoney is a business man, so for him to be a rabble rouser inciting strikes shows political motives. He knows that these high wages for cutting cane is not sustainable but yet he encourage them to strike. ahahahahha

Did you ever go in the fields and cut cane. Only the wearer  of the shoes knows where it pinches. 

Cane cuttah wuk nah gatt no future, dah yestaday jabs.  Dem goa strike and strike and waan day, Govt go gafa juss shut donk and story done.  Da PPP fite fuh cane cuttahs, now dem face reality and cane cuttah tun dem cutlish pon dem.

Dem PNC bais a laff how coolie ah beat up pon dem mattie.  Yuh see no black nah goa stand wid cane cuttahs.  Donk hay ah coolie fite coolie, black fite coolie and coolie goa wid black and fite coolie.  In di end all abie coolie gon tun dagg food.  Mi tell nuff canecuttahs fuh move aan an nah fite fa wah natt deh.  Dem a wase dem time.

It is a low wage low skill job that machines should be doing.

I suggest that if you want to kill yourself try a low paying, low skill job and you might just chop up yourself. Your ancestors must be turning in their graves listening to your stupidity. You are a waste of the planet's space.

Get a grip and return to the world of reality. We all aspire to do better than our foreparents. They would be turning over in their graves if I was still cutting cane. Those persons who don't take their education and are forced to resort to cutting cane has failed their ancestors.  Mechanization is the only solution to solving the sugar industry woes.

The AFC A-Team at work as promised,working withe the needy with open arms.Cane harvesters need representation,better wages and housing,they mean so much to the progress of Guyana so they should deserve the best.Mr Gerhard continue your good work and god Bless.

Let me tell you something my brother, I cut cane in the field and throw manure and proud of it. With the money I made I went to school, worked my way up and got 3MBAs. Do not belittle work, whatever and however menial it is. Life is a struggle. By the way there is an art/skill in cutting cane, you don't do it right and you can chop up yourself.

the ppp was build on the cane cutters back jagan must be turning in his grave the people cutting cane and the ppp crime family thiefing the tax payers money and living off the people sweat only a blind man will not see how these people is punishing all because the ppp will not do a honest job

Don your fore parents would be proud of you. Now you need to concede that those still cutting cane need to inspire their children to betterment rather than to be stuck in the same cycle of cutting cane, drinking rum and beating their wives. 

No matter how you try to glorify the "art" of cane cutting, it does not detract from the fact that it is an archaic way of earning a living and a vestige of the past. If second and 3rd generations are still cutting cane then progress is not being made. 

Work maketh the man.  I will always be grateful to my father for never differentiating me from the farm workers as I grew up, many who were out of crop sugar workers.  In my prime, I could have worked foot to foot with any sugar worker - except cutting cane which is an art I never mastered.

Pleaseeee, gmoney trying to sell himself as son of the soil when indeed he was brought up in the lap of luxury. That big belly is evidence enough that he never saw a day hard labor. hahahahahah

We came to Guyana from East Germany in 1976 with only a few items, and a used French car (Simca) my dad bought with his savings.  That car caught afire less than two years after and we didn't own another car until 6 or 7 years later, though we did buy a scrapped German truck from the Gov't in 1980.  We were never poor, living within our means, and even after we built our home in Lamaha Gardens, we never lived in luxury (up to now my living is middle class - I have posted pictures of my home on GNI).  

After all my dad's contracts were pulled by Burnham in 1980, we lived off of the land, first by planting vegetables and then flowers.  During that time until about ten years ago, when I entered the IT field, I was always engaged in some form of menial work, including repairing heavy-duty German tractors far in the interior.

"Government has accused the political opposition of inserting itself into the industrial unrest affecting the sugar industry, saying that it is counter-productive and in no way mirrors the PPP’s fight during its time out of government."

It appears Gerhard and his fellow goons are in-sighting the sugars to strike, so that a ray of lime light has be shone on them

it seems like the whole sugar industries is in trouble and this is a human factor,how come the president is not saying a word to the sugar workers what is silence mean,what so hard to investgate these people NIS. the ppp better not make these people mad 

Guysuco suffers further setback as… Enmore canecutters strike over health, NIS issues

While Phagwah celebrations were in full swing yesterday, the Enmore Sugar

Reports are that the cane cutters called the strike in solidarity with some of their co-workers who were injured on the job that were not being dealt with adequately or fairly by the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and GuySuCo.

Mohamed Ali, who has been unable to work since June last year due to a badly fractured foot, is experiencing problems with his NIS benefit

The cane cutters assembled at the Enmore Martyrs Monument and voiced their concerns to members of the media and a delegation from the Alliance for Change, which included Gerhard Ramsaroop and Kojo McPherson, along with political activist, Frederick Kissoon.

One of the affected workers is Mohamed Ali, who suffered a broken right foot after falling from a punt in June last year for which he had to have an external fixation device. His wife Devi Persaud claimed that he only received six months of benefits from NIS which abruptly stopped and since then she has been given the “royal run-around.” “This man lay down pon he bed with an income from nowhere. You go at de estate, nobody tell you anything. You go at de NIS and dem ah tell you jim cock bring ram goat.” The woman said that, initially the NIS had claimed that she had collected money on behalf of her husband when she did not.

As for the workers union, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), they too have been frustrating the whole process, Persaud told this newspaper. Some of the workers even suggested a change in the union that represents them, since they are convinced that “GAWU and the government are one”.

Seetaram Bramnarain was injured on the job in December 2011 and he is still recovering. His ankle is still visibly swollen and he is unable to return to work yet the NIS office issued a note saying he is fit to work. During the period that Ramnarine was off of the job he only received the equivalent of ten days pay which amounted to about $24,000. He is at “a total loss” at the NIS’s evaluation of him and he has become frustrated since he is not receiving adequate compensation. This injured man is the sole breadwinner of his home and has a daughter attending school. His bills are mounting up and he is worried about his electricity being cut off.

Another sugar worker, Seemangal Chatiram also lamented that he suffers from a heart condition and is not being compensated. He produced documents to confirm that he has been a patient at the Georgetown hospital’s medical clinic, ever since he collapsed on the worksite. Chaitram said that although his heart condition has been confirmed by doctors at the Georgetown Hospital, medical personnel at the GuySuCo Enmore Estate are insisting that his ailment is no more than a pulled muscle and they have advised him to go back to work.

Many of the workers protested that periods which they made NIS contributions remain unaccounted for and they are holding GuySuCo responsible since they expect the Corporation to maintain proper records.

Another contentious issue was that of the medical service provided by GuySuCo Enmore Estate. The problem was amplified yesterday morning when one of the workers fell ill and had to be rushed to the estate clinic, where there was no medic present. This is despite there being a house built for a resident medic but which is now occupied by load operators. The worker was then placed in the ambulance to be taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital. However, the ambulance which is in a clear state of disrepair only made it as far as La Bonne Intention (LBI).

Striking sugar workers block the path of the dilapidated ambulance, which is used to transport injured workers to the hospital.

 

Kaieteur News understands that the engine of the ambulance sputters and smokes excessively (the smoke and smell of gasoline gets inside the vehicle), the tyres are second-hand and euro-band was used to cover the rotted holes in the body of the tyres. When the ambulance returned to Enmore, its path was blocked by the angry striking canecutters so that the media could get a proper look at it.

Complaints were also raised by the workers about the conditions of work when the estate is not grinding canes. They said that they are supposed to be given four days of work per week at an average pay of $10,000. However, the workers claim that the tasks they are given often take more than a day to complete and therefore they are forced to work more than four days to receive four days’ pay. The low pay coupled with the bad working conditions force the workers to seek alternative incomes away from the estate. Other workers, who are paid by the day and not by the task said that they were promised an evaluation with the aim of raising their pay from some $1,500 per day to $2,500, yet that promise remains unfulfilled.

During the strike yesterday, the workers reiterated issues that they had placed squarely at the feet of management. One major problem was cane being planted far in the backdam costing some $133M but because there were no canals dug and the soil was far too soft for tractors, the cane had to be left uncut. The new tractors that were reportedly bought for some $18M each did not last more than a few weeks in the fields. They began to experience major damages for which there was no apparent warranty.

Many of the workers live in Foulis, ECD, close to the estate and they also raised some issues affecting their community. They said that the lack of proper drainage and functioning pumps resulted in frequent flooding at the slightest rainfall which adversely affects their kitchen gardens and livestock. They depend on both for food and an extra dollar. Quite recently the workers said that they were told they had to pay $1,000 per household every month for garbage collection.  This would amount to $763,000 per month and they cannot understand why so much money is needed, especially when they are already paying rates and taxes.

The AFC, which has been at the forefront of championing the workers’ cause, said in a statement yesterday that they are not trying to replace the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), but to highlight the issues with the aim of securing timely resolutions. The AFC emphasised that the sugar industry is in trouble and that it must not be allowed to collapse. “It is vital not just as a major employer and foreign exchange earner, but also for the enormous contribution it can make to the energy sector through bagasse and ethanol,” the AFC said.