John Myers Jr., Agriculture Coordinator
Left: Alfred Herbert, a former sugar worker at Black Rock, St. Kitts-Nevis, taking a breather. Many citizens are disappointed as plans for the re-employment of displaced workers have faltered since the twin-island federation shut down its sugar industry seven months ago. Right: Conrad Kelly, a former manager of the St. Kitts Sugar Manufacturing Corporation. - PHOTOS BY JOHN MYERS
IT HAS been seven months since the sugar cane trains screeched to a halt and the mills stopped grinding in St. Kitts and Nevis, but concerns over the closure of the sugar industry still linger.
THE MAJORITY of Kittitians supported the Government's decision to close
the industry, which employed about 12 per cent of the labour force on the twin-island federation. However, an air of disquiet hangs as some debate whether the wrap-up of the sector was done in the best way, and whether workers were compensated properly.
Some workers felt they should have received more. Others spoke of the inadequacy of the programmes that were implemented by the Government to absorb the shocks from the shutdown of the sugar industry.
RIGHT MOVE
Sharyon Thomas is one citizen who believes closure was the right move.
"I think it actually had to happen sooner or later. Better now than later when you are too much in debt because every year you're losing money on this industry; it doesn't make sense," she argued. "You have so many things (industries) which can substitute for cane sugar. If you are going to have all these competitions going on and they are going to take away those concessions (European Union preferential agreement) ... there's no way we can do it," the young professional added.
Rupert Gumbs, a chemist for 43 years at the St. Kitts Sugar Manufacturing Corporation (SSMC), holds a similar view.
"I welcome the decision. All along they were telling us, but some people were taking it lightly ... I knew it was coming, so you had to prepare," he said. He did admit, however, that the closure of the sugar industry has affected the economic well-being of many people, and as a result has forced them to change their lifestyles.
But there are others like Conrad Kelly who, though agreeing with the Government's decision, feel the process could have been handled differently to allow for a smoother transition out of a 'sweet life'.
"The majority of those workers are the head of households, the sole dependent, so this has had tremendous impact on people's livelihood," Kelly, a former manager of the SSMC, told The Gleaner in an interview from his small office at the St. Kitts Chamber of Industry and Commerce where he is now in charge of preparations for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
"It is silent at the moment ... and if people don't earn then it leads to crime. It leads to social problems," he added.
Mr. Kelly argued that "although we hope it does not happen, if there isn't a social safety net put in place to take care of those persons during the transition period, then of course the consequences will be for the whole society."
About 1,500 people lost their jobs with the shutdown of the sugar industry in St. Kitts. About 350 of those were seasonal workers from the Dominican Republic and Guyana who have since returned home. Another 270 of those workers had reached retirement age. So far, the Government has managed to find employment for only about 225 of the remaining workers. Many of the others are still without work.
FRUSTRATED COLLEAGUES
"When I speak to some of my colleagues, they say they are frustrated. They are frustrated because of how it gone," Mr. Kelly said. He lamented that "you (the government) had this huge plan for re-educating and retooling the workers (but) it has not materialised that way."
Veronica Williams, a former accountant at the SSMC, while supporting the closure of the sector, said that "some of them (the workers), even though they got the severance payment, were emotionally drained." She explained that it was always rumoured that the industry was going to be closed, but the Government denied it, and so many of the workers were not prepared for a life after sugar.
Alexis Sweeney, who worked in the sugar industry for 16 years, felt the closure should have come on a phased basis to allow time for people to prepare for new careers.
Sweeney is one of many who are still out of a job. His life is now a struggle.
"The maintenance part is the problem because the severance pay, you have to use that to keep on supporting the family and when that done, that's it," he reasoned.
Cedric Liburd, St. Kitts' Minister of Agriculture, admitted that the re-employment process was not happening as fast as expected, but said that is to change soon with the projected expansion in the tourist sector from the construction of three new hotels and the development of non-sugar agriculture in the rural areas.
He blamed the slow re-employment too on the reluctance of former sugar workers to relocate from the rural areas to the capital Basseterre and Frigate Bay where there are jobs in the tourist industry.
"All of their lives they have been used to working very close to their homes, and that is why they don't want to move and that is why we are now working on agriculture to see if non-sugar agriculture can assist some of them to get the kind of jobs that will help them in their own area," Mr. Liburd.
One of the unfortunate realities of the closure, he admitted, is that not all those who worked in the sugar industry would be able to find jobs. But Mr. Liburd explained that the shutdown was unavoidable as it was losing in excess of EC$30 million per year and the government could no longer sustain the sector.
Gordon Alert, head of the Transition Office, conceded that the government might have been too slow in putting in place adequate measures to prepare the workers for transition out of sugar.
"Prior to that (the closure) was the whole process of denial, even the management (SSMC) at the time were so concentrated on sugar and had not made the shift into the future ... so that was part of the whole psychological trauma that everybody was going through," he said.
"Generally, it wasn't a very easy time for anyone. It was very stressful so even though we try to engage them, a lot of them stayed away ..." Mr. Alert said.
