…bearing gifts?
The old saw about what’s news advises that it ain’t “dog bites man” – that’s expected. But if “man bites dog”, then you’ve got yourself a headline!! Well, “trade union flays company” isn’t news…that happens every day of the week. Just listen (if you can bear it!) to the tirades of Lincoln Lewis against RUSAL and Troy!! But when “Trade Union shills for company”, you know something ain’t right, and it needs to be exposed.
And that’s exactly what GAWU – the union that’s been sponging off sugar workers’ sweat for the last fifty-odd (very odd!) years — did when they issued a long-winded release about GuySuCo issuing bids to build a plant to produce “55,000 tons white sugar annually”!! What the hell’s going on?? Here’s a union with the largest membership in the country. It accepted GuySuCo/Government’s closure of 4 sugar estates and throwing 5000 members (not to mention another 2000 from cane farmers) into the streets without shutting down Georgetown with protests – and now bigs up GuySuCo??
You say GAWU protested in front of the closed estates, dear reader?? Seeing that in print, your Eyewitness hopes you see the ridiculousness of those “protests”! First of all, with the estates closed, who was taking them on?? Certainly not GuySuCo’s managers, who are in Ogle; or the Government, which is in G/town!! If a tree falls in the middle of the forest and no one heard it, did it fall?? Did GAWU see the actions of bauxite workers when they were asked to pay a fraction of their electricity rates?? Did GAWU even consider protesting for the fired sugar workers’ electricity tariffs to be waived until they find new employment?? Hell! They didn’t even utter a word when water infrastructure built with SILWF funds to give them free water was handed over to GWI — which then started charging them for water!!
What’s the point of GAWU taking time to mention that the GuySuCo Chairman “felt that workers need better remuneration”, when workers’ wages have been frozen since 2015, when the PNC took office?? The man was just shedding crocodile tears!! Didn’t Finance Minister Jordan say it was the GuySuCo board – headed by the Chairman – that makes decisions on wages?? Back in the day, not long after the first sugar workers’ union – the MPCA – was founded, it was soon discovered that some top union officials were being paid off by the Sugar Producers Association, and workers were again being screwed royally. That’s why GAWU was founded. Has history now come a full circle??
Once again, sugar workers are being shafted because their leaders are either cowardly or have been seduced by filthy lucre.
GAWU must answer for its stance.
…before donkey
What makes GAWU’s shilling for GuySuCo more reprehensible is that touting of the white sugar factory being up within two years just doesn’t make sense. First, let’s understand that Plantation White Sugar – which is what’s being contemplated – is not made by REFINING, which removes all impurities. But COTED has recommended to Caricom that the 40% CET be slapped on all sugar – refined and otherwise. Will Caricom be able to stand behind this decision against the big refiners from up north?? Will food companies that want to export outside the region be able to convince those markets that the impurities in Plantation White – esp sodium dioxide and those trace metals – don’t really matter??
Then there are the obstacles which GAWU itself identified. Where’s the sugar cane gonna come from if the workers don’t get a living wage?? Or where’s the funding going to come from for the new white sugar factory, since the banks have stopped disbursements on the G$30billion bond?? Why? Well the funds can’t be used for operational expenses – such as workers’ wages!!
So GAWU are back to square one, aren’t they?
…on roundabouts
This PNC government has a fetish about roundabouts. They seem to feel that this traffic arrangement – which has been around since the beginning of the 20th century – is “revolutionary”!!
Neanderthals!!