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GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) - Thousands of sugarcane workers were on strike Thursday in Guyana in a dispute over pay, paralyzing production of the impoverished South American nation’s No. 1 export.
Two days in, the walkout has forced the closure of all eight estates owned by state-run sugar monopoly Guyana Sugar Corp., or Guysuco.
It was not immediately clear whether exports were affected.
Cutters’ union leaders said in a statement that more than 10,000 people, or nearly 90 percent of its members, were participating in the strike to demand higher wages. They said it began after company negotiators broke off contract talks this week when workers at one estate launched an unauthorized walkout.
In a statement Thursday, Guysuco said it would not negotiate under duress.
The nationwide strike — the third massive walkout since August 2008 — comes weeks after Guysuco announced that last year’s production of 226,270 tons of sugar was the lowest in a decade. The company said it lost more than $20 million in 2008 due to recurrent labor strikes and crop damage from heavy rains.
"The situation facing Guysuco is grim," CEO Errol Hanoman told reporters late Wednesday. "Losses this year are projected at $12 million."
Government officials are trying to bring the two sides together, but it is unclear when contract talks may resume.
Guyana is the Caribbean’s leading sugar producer and one of a handful of countries in the region that continues to export sugar to the United States and Europe.
In recent years, Trinidad and St. Kitts both abandoned their centuries-old sugar industries, blaming high production costs and cuts in the European Union’s prices for sugar imports.