A fight for survival!

Scores of workers employed at the Wales Sugar Estate, West Bank Demerara (WBD) converged in front of the Parliament Buildings, Georgetown on Thursday, January 21, in a peaceful picketing exercise to protest against the move by the government to close the estate.

Loud shouts from irate sugar workers armed with placards reading “No to the closure of the Wales Estate”, “Workers Unite, Fight Unemployment”, “GAWU says CoI opposed closure” and more could be heard and seen from a distance near the Stabroek Market Square as Parliamentarians from the Opposition Party, PPP/C joined the workers in support of the picketing exercise.

Many of the protesters contended that with the closure of the Wales Estate they would not be able to provide for their families or even seek alternative employment elsewhere.

A majority of the workers stated that sugar cultivation and cane harvesting are the only jobs they have been doing for most of their lives and they are not qualified to seek employment elsewhere.

The distraught and frustrated picketers explained that even if they are relocated to another sugar factory/ estate it would not be beneficial to their villages and the business community in Region Three.

“If we have to go work somewhere else what will happen to all the businesses near Wales? Our villages would suffer because if they depend on us buying our little goods from them how would they survive too? Why can’t they just give us a change and help save the estate?” one man questioned.

According to one woman, the move to stage this peaceful picketing exercise was decided upon by all workers who turned out since they hope that the members of the Government who would be sitting in Parliament today (Thursday) would ‘hear our cries’ and reverse the decision to have the estate closed.

Former Local Government Minister, Ganga Persaud told the gathering that these protesters were “right to express” themselves based on how they feel about what is happening to them.

“You make your statement…you have your children, your family to take care…all you want to do is survive,” he said.

Dale Austin, a worker attached to the Wales Estate highlighted the fact that many persons in Region Three would have to be “high on the alert” with the closure of the estate in question because the crime rate is expected to skyrocket with such a hasty decision by the government.

A factory worker, Neville Williams stated that the GuySuCo officials who were on air recently trying to justify the closure of this sugar estate should be “ashamed” to have done such a thing especially when they are all aware that those working at Wales Estate have been doing their utmost.