Issue #4 Volume #42
Editorial
Combat
Trickledown economics
Voice of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU)
Many governments worldwide have contended that it is necessary to support the private sector against the background of trickledown economics. Proponents of the scheme argue that benefits obtained by the wealthy will trickle down to the wider population. They theorize that businesses are the main drivers of growth in the economy, hence the term ‘businesses are the engine of growth’, and their increased activities brought about by lower taxes and other government support will spill off into increased employment, better wages, and conditions for the working-class. Combat contends that this is not the case, and, in a practical sense, the benefits of trickledown economics are really a fallacy. Several studies have confirmed that trickledown economics simply does not work. Renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz, in a 2019 article, identified in the United States that since the adoption of the trend, the richest one (1) percent have seen their real incomes increasing by 169% between 1980 and 2014. He outlined that the richest 0.1 percent, the superrich, have recorded a nearly three time jump in their incomes in the same period. On the contrary, he outlined that average household income in the USA grew by 0.7% between 1980 and 2014. The facts are both startling and revealing. Inequality has now become a global concern. International charity Oxfam has identified in 2020 despite COVID-19, the world’s 1000 richest individuals grew by US$3.9T. That sum was sufficient, Oxfam said, to remove the entire world from poverty. Some argue that the wealthy work harder, and thus deserve the wealth they accumulate. We do not share that view, and recognize workers in our contemporary times are working harder and longer without any commensurate reward. We note statistics indicate that global worker productivity has increased by 60% between 1979 and 2019, but their wages grew substantially less in the same period. Clearly, workers are indeed being pauperized and pushed into poverty, despite their best efforts. Inequality is the product of a flawed and exploitative economic system, which has its roots in neoliberal economics and the capture of politics by elites. It has exploited and exacerbated entrenched systems of inequality and oppression. These systems are the root causes of injustice and poverty. They generate huge profits accumulated in the hands of the elite by exploiting people living in poverty, women, and racialized and historically marginalized and oppressed communities around the world. Inequality means that more people are sick, fewer are educated, and fewer live happy, dignified lives. It poisons our politics, driving extremism and racism. It undermines the fight to end poverty. It leaves many more people living in fear and fewer in hope. Combat has decided to address this searing issue as Guyana is soon to experience a period of unprecedented economic expansion. We have seen the advocacy from many quarters for similar practices in our country. Combat is not averse to businesses receiving state support. We recognise the importance of them being nurtured to develop, as they must compete in the globalized marketplace. However, we urge a balance be struck and support to our people, especially the vulnerable. We recognize efforts by the Government to provide such support. However, as our wealth improves, we have expectations of improvements for all Guyanese. Indeed, we contend that workers are the fuel of Guyana’s development, and we need to ensure that our workforce is highly skilled and property compensated. Workers are the generators of our wealth, and they have every right to benefit equally from our country’s development. We urge an equal Guyana for all.
October/December, 2021
7% increase for sugar workers! - a reversal of years of discrimination
From left: GuySuCo CEO Sasenarine Singh; Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha; Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo; GAWU General Secretary Aslim Singh, and GAWU Assistant General Secretary/Treasurer Porandatt Narine following a meeting on December 20, 2021 when the Government communicated its decision to extend to sugar workers the pay rise given to state employees. The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) noted the announcement by Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo in respect to pay rise to sugar workers for this year. Earlier this year, the Vice President, during an engagement with the workers and the Union, undertook to ensure that sugar workers benefitted from a pay rise in 2021. The announcement represented a fulfillment of that commitment. For the GAWU, the decision by the Government to provide workers with a seven (7) percent rise in pay equivalent to their counterparts in other sectors of the State marks a reversal of the policy of discrimination that was meted out to them during the Coalition Government.
operations for their livelihood. Apart from the wage freeze, other long-standing benefits were simply suspended without rhyme or reason, and sugar workers and their families suffered disdainfully at the hands of the former powers-that-be.
It is well-known during the life of the David Granger Administration sugar workers were treated like unwanted stepchildren. Their wages were frozen at 2014 levels while their colleagues in other sections of the State’s employ benefitted from annual pay adjustments. During that period, they suffered immensely as the cost-of-living rose appreciably while their real wages tumbled. In computations, GAWU pointed out between 2015 and 2019, that sugar workers’ real wages declined by some 42%. For the Union, it appeared that the industry received special focus by the former Government and no attempt was spared to extract maximum punishment on the thousands who depended on its
The workers received their retroactive payments on December 31, 2021 and their new rates-of-pay have already been implemented. Undoubtedly, it made their holidays somewhat brighter and enable workers and their families, in their own way, to be able to afford some of what was denied to them under the Coalition. The GAWU, at this time, is appreciative of the Government’s genuine efforts to bring about betterment to the sugar workers and the workers of Guyana. We are sure that the workers are greatly appreciative of the Government’s decision. Indeed, it is yet another promise fulfilled by the Government.
The entire period spoke to the hardship and travails the workers faced and the challenges they were asked to surmount. It is without question that the pay rise approved by the Government following consultations with the GAWU will allow sugar workers to reclaim what they lost as the former Government, it appeared, set out to pauperize them and their families.