By Balford Henry, Acting News Editor
Heaven
CUBAN WORKERS are coming to Jamaica to work in the sugar industry, but this time they are being welcomed with open arms.
Executive chairman of the Sugar Company of Jamaica, Derrick Heaven, confirmed yesterday that a small number of Cuban workers and managers have been engaged at the Government-owned sugar company's factories and estates since last week.
He said the Cubans include a factory manager at Frome, a workshop supervisor at Monymusk and a number of workers including, at least, three drivers operating sugar cane harvesters leased from Cuban factories and engaged at Monymusk and Bernard Lodge.
"A number of Cubans came with the harvesters because they were needed to operate them. We didn't have the money to buy the machines so we had to lease them," he said.
Mr. Heaven admitted the Cubans did the job "much quicker and much cheaper".
But, he said that the cash-strapped SCJ was not only looking to Cuba for recruits: "We are in the process of recruiting people from overseas because there is a shortage of skilled workers. We ran advertisements and we couldn't get the people, so we are going to bring in the expertise and we will also be recruiting qualified Jamaicans who can be trained," he said.
Mr. Heaven will visit Louisiana in the United States next month and he is also in contact with Australian and South African estates in search of recruits.
Having a university degree was not sufficient to run the factories, it requires some experience, he pointed out.
He said that the major crisis for his company was the availability of sugar cane and in order to overcome the problem, the estates were gearing up for increased mechanisation.
Mr. Heaven said despite the difficulties facing many people when employment opportunities seem so few, people are refusing to cut cane. He was supported on that point by Pearnel Charles, Vice-President of the BITU and the union's spokesman on sugar.
"There are not enough workers right now to plant, cut and reap canes. The industry needs workers,' Mr. Charles conceded.
"My personal view is that the industry has to go in the direction of mechanisation, total hand cutting cannot work any more. We were afraid that when computers came in they would cost jobs, but now we've learnt that technology can increase jobs and mechanisation could encourage more young people to go into sugar," he added.
And not even the cane farmers who have been demanding Mr. Heaven's head for the past couple of months seem perturbed by his latest venture.
According to the Vice-Chairman of the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association, A.C. McDonald, "our concern is that the people are proficient and can do the job effectively".
