A march organised by striking sugar workers from the Wales estate ended prematurely yesterday when police tear-gassed marchers and arrested thirteen workers.

Leader of the Justice For All Party, CN Sharma was among those arrested for holding an illegal procession.

As reported in the Sunday Stabroek of October 12, the sugar workers are demanding the removal of a chute at the West Bank Demerara factory that has been breaking down and affecting the workers’ weekly production incentive.

Guysuco and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) have since been called to a meeting by the Ministry of Labour set for today at 1 pm. The workers say they are planning another march today.

Up to press time the thirteen workers, who were arrested around midday, were still locked up at the Leonora Police Station while Sharma was said to have been taken to a private city hospital for treatment. Sources close to Sharma told this newspaper that he might have received minor injuries.

According to a press release from the police, the thirteen persons were part of a crowd of over 250 Wales estate workers who decided to march to the city to air their grievances and in the process disregarded police directives to disperse and desist from blocking the road.

However, a man who was part of the procession told this newspaper late yesterday afternoon that while they did take up part of the road, vehicles were allowed to pass. The man said all along their journey from Wales to Nismes on the West Bank, where the procession was eventually halted, traffic cops were carefully regulating the traffic and no one had behaved disorderly.

In a release, Guysuco said since the strike started on October 7, the company had told GAWU that there would be no talks unless workers returned to work. The corporation said that the strike was started without the grievance being placed in the hands of the union for representation to the Guysuco Industrial Relations Department.

Guysuco is urging the workers to resume duties so that talks can be facilitated.

The police said the workers’ protests continued on Monday at the Wales Public Road in front of the estate when a similar number of workers had assembled, blocking the road in the process. However, the police had spoken to the marchers and they later cleared the road.

But yesterday according to the police release the marchers blocked the road and despite numerous warnings, they refused to disperse and attempted to block the road with a tractor trailer while on their way to Georgetown.

The police release said following several other warnings the police were forced to use teargas to disperse the crowd which had swelled to about 300. It was at this point the thirteen workers were picked up. Sharma was later arrested.

The police are maintaining that the march was illegal and that the force had to take action to stop it.

Giving an account of yesterday’s incident, one of the marchers said that around 8.30 am the workers began to assemble at the estate for what was planned as a big march to the city. He said the organisers had invited Sharma who had been with them since the industrial action began.

The man told this newspaper that Sharma arrived around 9 am and tried to persuade the workers not to march, but they insisted and Sharma joined them. An official at CNS Channel Six said Sharma was at the helm of the march in the capacity of a reporter and at no time did he organise the march. The sugar worker continued that the procession moved off from Wales with the workers chanting songs and some held up small placards bearing slogans.

He said as the marchers moved up the road police officers from Wales carefully monitored them and were seen directing traffic. He agreed that they were told to disperse but some of the marchers became abusive to the ranks and continued.

“Nobody listen to them. We keep going we way and some ah dem boys even cus some ah dem police.”

According to the man, while they marched other workers and some members of the community joined in. He said when they got to Nismes a group from the crowd began to haul a tractor trailer which was parked at the corner of road, laden with sugar cane. He said the men were trying to place the trailer across the road to stop the traffic.

“But is when deh try to do this de police dem get real vex and began to shout on them but nobody pay dem any mind.”

The man related that while struggling to pull the trailer across the road a vanload of Black Clothes police arrived and shortly after members of the Tactical Services Unit joined them.

Soon after the teargas was released into the crowd.

“Boy when dis start to happen we all bus and scatter everybody running helter-skelter and some people even jump over some drain to get away.”

The man said during the confusion he saw that Sharma moved away and was seen speaking with a few of the workers.

He added that he observed when the police arrested the thirteen workers. The man alleged that some of the workers were beaten and roughed up.

“So while Sharma was speaking with dem some ah dem who run away come back and they all were listening to he when a officer came up to Sharma and said, ‘Mr Sharma you are under arrest.’”

The man told this newspaper that Sharma complied with the officers who handled him roughly.

According to the man, once Sharma was arrested and whisked away by the police the workers went their separate ways.

The workers have been on strike since last Tuesday calling for the removal of a new chute installed to feed bagasse into the Number 3 boiler of the factory. The workers are claiming that the chute is restricting the factory’s output of sugar and as a result they were not been able to collect a Weekly Production Incentive because of a reduction in the number of days they are allowed to work.

According to a source at GAWU, prior to the workers’ action through their elected representatives or shop stewards, the workers have been meeting with the factory manager on the performance of the chute.

Moreover, the source said the representatives and the factory manager agreed to allow some time to pass with a view to correcting what both parties agreed were teething problems.

The GAWU source said the strike started without the grievance being placed in the hands of the union at the central level for representation to the Industrial Relations Department of Guysuco. The union maintained that it was the responsibility of the shop stewards to inform the union centrally that discussions between them and the factory manager have been deadlocked and to allow the union officials to follow up the dispute at the next stage. The GAWU official said they were working towards a resumption, adding that without an engagement with Guysuco the union would be unable to deal with the dispute with a view to finding a solution.