The sugar workers will receive a 10% increase for 2024, retroactive to January 1, and an increase of 8% in 2025. The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and GuySuCo signed an agreement that ensures sugar workers would receive the same generous increases granted to teachers and public servants after negotiation had been had between Government and their unions – the Guyana Teachers Union, and the Guyana Public Service Union.
Last week, this column urged Guyanese to ask themselves the “what if” question. What if Guyana did not make a change in March 2020, and we did not have a President Irfaan Ali and a PPP government? What if we still had a President David Granger and the APNU Government?
For sugar workers, the answer is as clear as crystal. Under President David Granger, they had a wage-freeze, with no salary increases for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 — the sordid legacy of the PNC-led APNU government. Sugar workers also know that the last time before the 2015-2020 shameful period that such a freeze existed for them was in the 1980s under a PNC government. Sugar workers know that wage-freeze policies occurred in Guyana only under President Forbes Burnham, President Desmond Hoyte, and President David Granger — all leaders of the PNC.
On the other hand, sugar workers know that ever since President Irfaan Ali was sworn-in as Guyana’s president, and the PPP government was returned to power in August 2020, they have enjoyed pay increases every single year. In fact, they know that they have had pay increases under successive PPP governments every year from 1992 to 2014, and from 2020 to present.
It therefore is easy for sugar workers to answer confidently the question “What if?”.
They know that the PPP has always been on the side of sugar workers. They also know that sugar workers have been targeted by the PNC throughout their history in government. Sugar workers know that the PNC and their allies always make fake promises. Which sugar worker would not recall the bold promise made by the PNC/AFC, that they would be given annual 20% pay increases? That promise was never kept; and instead was replaced by the brutal reality of a wage-freeze.
What if the PPP had not been returned to government after the March 2020 elections? Guyana today would for certain not have had a sugar industry. After promising that no sugar estate would be closed because, in David Granger’s words, “sugar is too big to fail”, the PNC implemented their cruel and brutish plan to close sugar in Guyana. They closed Rose Hall Estate in Canje, and Skeldon Estate in Region 6, Wales Estate in Region 3, and Enmore/LBI Estates in Region 4. More than 7,000 sugar workers and their families (more than 40,000 persons) were left to fend for themselves, and were initially denied their legally-entitled severance pay. The PPP, while in opposition, provided legal support for sugar workers to approach the court, and for a court-mandated payment of severance for the sugar workers.
The PPP had promised it would reopen, where possible, sugar estates. Rose Hall estate is back in operation, and has produced almost 8,000 tons of sugar in 2024. More than 1,500 persons have been re-employed at the Rose Hall Estate, which would try to produce more than 20,000 tons of sugar in 2025.
What if Irfaan Ali did not become President in 2020? What if the PPP did not return to Government in 2020? The answer is clear – SUGAR would have been dead in Guyana. Almost 20,000 sugar workers and more than 60,000 family members in Guyana would have been pushed into absolute poverty.
Some have said that Guyana no longer needs a working-class government, that Guyana needs a government that would catalyze business. While we need a government that ensures the private sector is an engine of growth, we also need a government that is part of the overall economic and social growth trajectory in Guyana. President Ali has shown that he is capable of providing the leadership for the upliftment of the working-class and business at the same time.
The over-70,000 public servants have, since 2021, received overall more than 66% increase in their salaries. Between 2015 and 2020, the PNC-led APNU/AFC government only increased public servants’ salaries by about 35% overall, when, in 2015 alone, they had given themselves between 50% and 100% pay increases.
By 2025, the total expenditure for overall public service would amount to over $227B, moving from $126B in 2021. This is testimony to the working-class credentials of the PPP. Cheddi Jagan’s working-class loyalty has not been abandoned by the PPP, although it has created the most robust environment for the private sector to prosper. The pay increases only represent a part of an overall package to support families. Families with children in school receive cash grants for each child. In 2025, this cash grant is likely to be $50,000 per child. Pensioners will receive at least $41,000 per month in 2025. Each citizen above 18 years old is getting a 2024 cash grant of $100,000. All members of the Joint Services are getting a one-month bonus. Farmers will receive more than $2B in subsidies for fertilizers, on top of the already allocated $1B for 2024.
Understandably, this has created confusion among the Opposition. The AFC Leader screamed that the PPP is “buying” votes, admitting that the increases are relatively hefty. The PNC Leader moaned it is a “pittance”, even though he will receive a hefty increase in his $1.8M per month package, and a retroactive payment of more than $2.2M. It is no wonder that, at a Christmas tree-lighting event at Freedom House in New Amsterdam, a PNC stronghold in the past, thousands of people showed up dressed in their red dresses and shirts.
The PPP is marching towards a massive victory in the 2025 elections.