John Myers Jr., Agriculture Coordinator
WORKERS OF the Frome sugar factory in Westmoreland agreed to resume production yesterday after learning that the factory's agricultural services manager Curbette Victorine had been sent on immediate leave pending a 36-day investigation.
This resulted from an emergency meeting with Agriculture and Land Minister Roger Clarke who decided to send Victorine on leave.
"We are putting an investigative committee in place to investigate all the matters surrounding the work stoppage and closure. Some people have been damaged and all that is to be looked at," Mr. Clarke told The Gleaner at the end of the meeting held at the Ministry of Agriculture and Land in Kingston. "They (the workers) are ready to go back to work and I think they will go back to work but they want to on the understanding that certain
pressing issues are dealt with," he continued.
Also attending the meeting were Livingstone Morrison, president of the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ), Ambassador Derick Heaven, executive chairman of the Sugar Industry Authority, Pearnel Charles, vice-president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, Lambert Brown, president of the University and Allied Workers Union and Vincent Morrison, island supervisor of the National Workers Union.
The minister said a suitable person to be agreed on by the unions and the management of the SCJ would be chosen today to lead the investigative committee.
MONYMUSK BACK AT WORK
Workers at the Monymusk sugar factory in Clarendon also returned to work yesterday. They stopped working on the weekend for what they complained was management's disregard for requests to repair faulty tractors and other equipment on the estate. "Their issue is something that we are going to be looking at and we have told them (the workers) that whatever the outstanding issues, the Sugar Producers' Federation will deal with that," Mr. Clarke explained.
The minister - accompanied by representatives of the respective unions, Ambassador Heaven and the management of the SCJ, also convened an emergency meeting with workers at the Duckenfield sugar estate in St. Thomas last night in a bid to resolve the impasse which has crippled production at the factory for more than a week. "I am going there this evening to speak with the workers with the assurance from the unions that really what they (the workers) need is just for somebody to talk with them," he said.
In the meantime, Mr. Brown said the unions were satisfied that Mr. Clarke's visit would broker an agreement at Ducken-field.
"Our interest is a national one. The farmers of Jamaica must have their canes cut," Mr. Charles said following the meeting. "Canes have been burnt for days and we want a resumption tomorrow (today)," he stressed.
Operations at Frome, the island's largest sugar factory, were halted by the SCJ on Monday following what Mr. Morrison said was a necessity to "protect life and property ..."
