| – Ramsammy tells Honours roll By Leon SuseranMinister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has said that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) must not be used as a political tool. He was addressing Champion Workers, Runners- up, their families and hundreds of sugar workers on Saturday at the Blairmont Community Centre Ground in West Berbice at the sugar company’s Honours- Roll Function.A section of the Champion workers,Cheap NFL Jerseys, runners-up and their families.The industry, particularly Blairmont and some other estates, was plagued by repeated protest and industrial action earlier in the year. Workers at Blairmont and a few East Berbice estates had demanded several changes including the removal of the Blairmont Estate Manager and better working practices. The Alliance for Change had stood in solidarity with the workers and the party had also voiced its concerns on the workers’ issues.Dr. Ramsammy said that the sugar industry in Guyana is like a family and no matter how successful every family is, “there are those moments of disharmony…when things are not quite running smoothly”.He said that GuySuCo is no different and the company will have “its moments of disagreements and workers have a right to make their demands and a right to robustly put forward their concerns and their unions have a right to represent those concerns”.The Managers of the company, he said, have a mandate to manage the industry as effectively and as efficiently as they can. “Sometimes, those vigorous efforts by both sides lead to disagreements and to tension…we must find a smooth way,Wholesale Stitched NFL Jerseys, because the workers and management want the same things— a successful industry”.Guyanese must allow the process of reconciliation, he urged, and of working through the difficulties without interference, “but there must be a platform that is suitable…when workers find it necessary for strike action,wholesale jerseys, then we in management, the unions and the workers must be given that space in which to resolve those difficulties without other people compounding and complicating the search for solutions”.In the end,Discount Football Jerseys, he added, the company has always resolved its problems. As the Minister during the last six months, he said that he has walked between the rain drops, “as I try to resolve issues between management and workers and their unions and one thing I have discovered through it all, we have workers who understand that sometimes they have to compromise and they understand that”.Ramsammy said that he has seen managers who believe that they are right deep down inside but “I have seen them relent and compromise”. “I have seen them agree to move forward when they believed that they should stand firm and I have seen the union walking between the raindrops, trying to create peace and harmony whilst never, never short- changing the workers in the industry”.According to the Minister, this is the kind of struggle the industry is likely to see continue this year and the next. Minister Ramsammy also said that weeks of good weather can make up for the “difficulties that we had in our first crop”…71, 000 tonnes was way short of what our capacity is”.He recalled when the colonial masters and slave masters, long ago, blamed the slaves for laziness “and I know, as a youngster growing up in Albion and as a young teacher, how the then government blamed the workers for the low productivity in this industry, and I have seen in the last few years, of how blame has been placed on the workers and their union, on management, for some of the difficulties we face today”.Ramsammy noted that people still do not look at the fundamental challenges the industry faces and that the truth is – the global trade situation has impacted on sugar globally, including Guyana. The uncouth and unethical cut in the sugar price,Wholesale Football Jerseys, he said, impacted the price of the industry and “no one can deny that”.“The truth also is that the sugar industry today is more weather- sensitive than it has ever been in its history; not only because of our weather, with climate change this is not the kind of weather that is supportive of this industry, but because some of our challenges have forced mechanisation of the industry at the same time that climate change has brought unfavourable weather.The industry itself is more weather- sensitive, than it has ever been in its history”.Those two circumstances, he said, have contributed to severe challenges but there are other challenges, such as inexperienced management, infrastructure that needs further input, dams and canals needing upgrade.“All these are challenges that we face, but they are compounded by the fact that we had to reorient an industry to a price mechanism that the Europeans imposed on us and by weather conditions that forced us to re- think the strategy”.Twenty- five workers were honoured on Saturday,Cheap Jerseys, nine of whom were Champion Workers from the eight estates and the Demerara Sugar Terminal; while there were nine First Runners- up and seven Second Runners- up.Chief Human Resources Manager, Ms. Stacy London outlined the criteria which were used for selecting the workers who were honoured.The Workers’ Council, comprised of all categories of workers, conducted a study and collected information on outstanding workers. The categories and winners were picked from across all of the eight estates and the sugar terminal in Region 4. Each Champion Worker will receive a certificate, $50,000 and an excursion for him or her along with their spouse to a local resort.The First Runners-up each received certificates and $30,000 and the Second Runners-up each received certificates along with $20,000. |
