Wales Estate workers needed to be treated with respect

Dear Editor,

In the veins of almost every Guyanese runs the bittersweet legacy of sugar. The Wales Sugar Estate closed its doors two Sundays ago. The coverage by the media of this issue, including the expressed views of those workers, requires us to stop and take heed.

None can deny that within recent years the sugar industry has not been economically feasible and has been dependent on the Consolidated Fund to maintain its activities. However, as a people what ought to be of major concern to us is the absence of treating each other with dignity and respect, born out of the principle of respecting the equality of all.

Our ancestors, whether enslaved, indentured or colonised, fought valiantly against the brutish system of plantation society where the owners and managers treated them as sub-human and beasts of burden.

The struggle for respect and dignity runs deep, and we who are the beneficiaries of those who fought for our freedom should keep trying at all costs not to repeat what they fought against. How we as a people arrived where we are today requires us to take time to reflect on where it went wrong and what ought to be done to correct it.

The Wales sugar workers are Guyanese and irrespective of their association ‒ political or trade union ‒ their entreaties to the management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and Government of Guyana should have been treated with the respect they deserve. Those workers should have had their voices heard, through their unions, including hearing if they had any proposal to make the operation viable.

The Chairman of the GuySuCo Board is Professor