Over 1,500 sugar workers yesterday engaged in a strike as part of an ongoing Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) campaign over wages and the closure of the Wales sugar estate.

According to a statement issued by the Government Information Agency (GINA), GuySuCo’s Finance Director Paul Bhim said that 1,700 workers staged a strike.

President of GAWU Komal Chand told Stabroek News that the action saw “just around 60% effective response,” with some workers staying home and others showing up to the order line then returning home rather than performing their duties.

Neither could definitively say what effect the strike had on the work of the corporation but they expect the weekly production figures to reflect some degree of impact.

The GINA statement explained that the corporation has recently begun the first crop and was as of Monday on track with its production. Production at that time was 11,243 tonnes of the 80,500-tonne target for the first crop.

GAWU has called for a 24-hour strike every Tuesday as a means of pressing GuySuCo to engage the Union in Collective Bargaining on issues relating to wages, the Annual Production Incentive (API), and closure of the Wales estate.

Recent negotiations under the auspices of the Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle had resulted in deadlock after the union and the corporation both refused to let go of their original positions on the API.

Citing its poor financial health, GuySuCo is offering workers 2.72 days’ pay in API, which represents a value of approximately $223M. The union is, however, asking for 5.5 days’ pay.

GAWU is also asking for the closure of the Wales estate to be delayed until such time as a social impact study has concluded that it is necessary, while GuySuCo maintains that it cannot afford the huge investment needed to rehabilitate the estate to a state of productivity.

GINA noted that “the industry is seeking to continue reversing its ineffective performance and return to profitability. The merging of the Wales and Utivlugt Estates is one of the measures being taken to ensure this goal is achieved.”

It further stated that although the company achieved the 2015 production target, it still has to battle weakening prices, aged machinery and high production costs, hence government has approved the sum of $9B for the corporation for 2016.

The overall target for 2016 is approximately 240,000 tonnes.