Sugar union cries victimisation

DISCRIMINATION and victimisation were two strong words advanced by the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade Union (ATSGWTU) in the employment practices being adopted at the Usine Ste Madeleine sugar factory for the 2004 sugar cane crop. Rudranath Indarsingh, President General of the ATSGWTU, told the media yesterday at Rienzi Complex, Mc Bean, Couva, that Government had promised through a statement by Ken Valley, Minister of Trade and Commerce, that 75 percent of the new labour force in the restructuring exercise being undertaken would be made up of persons who took the VSEP plan “but what we are hearing now is just the opposite.”

The Sugar Manufacturing Company Limited, of which Prem Nandlal is the Chief Executive Officer, had told the media also that some 1,100 people would be re-employed at the Usine Ste Madeleine Factory for the 2004 sugar cane crop which is projected to produce 75,000 tonnes of sugar, and he stressed that only workers with experience would be employed “but this is not the information we are getting back. “We are calling on the Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Marine Resources, John Rahael, and Prem Nandlal “to clear the air with respect to the individuals who are being employed at the Usine Factory at this time,” Indarsingh said. What has happened to Valley’s promise?” he asked. Indarsingh stressed that from information reaching the Union, “Only persons with PNM Party cards were being hired to work in sugar now. We want to know what the employment statistics are at the moment, especially with the ethnic distribution of those being hired.”

With respect to the Rum Distillers’ Company Limited (formerly Caroni’s rum distillery) now being managed by Anthony Phillip, and which the PNM has evaluated as being worth $1 billion, Indarsingh said, “It is Government’s intention to sell out the rum stock and kill the distillery plant, so that in the final analysis, no one would be re-employed.” Indarsingh explained that in 2002/2003, the operating cost of the distillery was $28 million and total sales were in the vicinity of $28.1 million. Apart from that, several firms were owing the rum distillery huge amounts and the “Corporate Secretary of the Company, Clarence Rambharat, should initiate plans to recover this money as he has those figures on his desk,” Indarsingh said. The new rum company, he added, was deliberately keeping workers out “ by embarking on a strategy to buy neutral spirits from Angostura at $6.30 per litre when the actual price is $5.76.”

Indarsingh said that the Rum Distillers “is in the process of buying aged rum from a source in Panama, with the intention of closing down the distillery at some point in time.” The Union president emphasised the fact that the rum distillery was the one section of Caroni that was profitable to run and it “is a pity that the Government was now making an effort to close it down.” Indarsingh said that the union disagreed with the explanation made by the Ministrry of Agriculture, Lands and Marine Resources yesterday in respect of the final payment to all employees with respect to the VSEP package “but this is not true”. “We still have a number of issues to be decided upon and among them is the matter of employees with unused sick leave and wage negotiations that was referred to the Industrial Court for the period 2002-2004,” the Union President said. Indarsingh predicted that the 2004 sugar cane crop would be disastrous in “that Usine could not produce the 75,000 tonnes of sugar being projected as in their best year, they produced only 54,000 tonnes of sugar. Usine does not have that capacity,” he argued.

Indarsingh said that the Union wrote Prem Nandlal congratulating him on his appointment and seeking a meeting to discuss employment and recruitment practices “but we were surprised that he did not reply to our request. It is a clear indication to us how the sugar wind is now blowing,” Indarsingh said. He stated, however, that his Union would “survive as we would not turn over and die as we have been working on several fronts to represent workers in many industries and so far we have been succeeding.”