Press Conference

16th August 2014, 10:50am

March on Port-of-Spain : 18th July 2014

Documentary : the Struggle Continues . . .

Speech given after the March

Press Conference Before the March

Over 4,000 ex-Caroni worker still to get land leases

Link : http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Over-4000-ex-Caroni-worker-still-to-get-land-leases-244567981.html

By By Sue-Ann Wayow sue-ann.wayow@trinidadexpress.com

Story Created: Feb 8, 2014 at 8:47 PM ECT
Story Updated: Feb 8, 2014 at 8:47 PM ECT

MORE than ten years after the closure of Caroni (1975) Ltd, more than 4,000 ex-Caroni workers are still to receive compensation from the Government.

President general of the All Trinidad General Workers’ Trade Union Nirvan Maharaj said yesterday 4,885 people were still to receive land leases.

Maharaj was speaking at a public forum on National Governance Crisis at Paraiso Events Hall, Claxton Bay yesterday.

He said those who received lands faced infrastructural problems, issues with electricity and water and many who were given land had no idea where that land was located.

Last month, ex-workers protested outside Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar office in St Clair, Port of Spain demanding cash and lands.

Garbage grows on Caroni lands

BY ADRIAN BOODAN
http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-12-27/news5.html

LANDS formerly controlled by Caroni (1975) Limited are now a haven for illegal dumping and unauthorised operations.

Former sugar workers who were awaiting leases for agricultural and housing lands said they were disgusted to see the level of deterioration that had taken place.

Workers said debris was being piled on a roadway to the Brechin Castle sugar factory, off Rivulet Road.

In other instances, there have been reports of bungalows being used to host private functions and lands being shared to private contractors after the closure of Caroni.

Debris was also spotted on lands near Roystonia and at Waterloo Road, Carapichaima, on lands once controlled by the State enterprise.

Sources at Caroni said the former sugar producing entity was no longer responsible for the 75,000 acres of lands which were now under state control.

The source said they had received numerous complaints which had been forwarded to Commissioner of State Lands Stephanie Alexander and the Estate Management Business Development Company headed by Indian national Uthara Rao.

Rudy Indarsingh, head of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers, said he, too, had been bombarded with numerous complaints of dumping and squatting on the abandoned cane lands.

Speaking with the Guardian yesterday, Indarsingh said he wanted answers.

He said the EMBD had awarded millions of dollars in contracts to security firms which had failed to secure and protect the State’s resources.

“The EMBD is taking instructions from the political directorate,” Indarsingh said.

“The millions expended by the EMBD in lucrative security contracts under Rao’s tenure have resulted in nothing.

“The lands are not secure...it seems that anyone can walk in and do anything on these lands.

“When Caroni folded in 2003, the small farmers who were then planting on strips of lands were chased by the EMBD security and their crops were destroyed.

“Today if you drive through the roads bordering Caroni lands all you can see is garbage strewn everywhere, nothing productive is taking place.”

Indarsingh said Rao had refused to sit and discuss with the ATSGWTU the land distribution process for the former workers. He said the EMBD was not taking on the High Court ruling of Justice Lennox Deyalsingh who ordered that the land should be first given to the ex-employees.

Ramesh: Caroni workers entitled to free land

BY ADRIAN BOODAN
http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-12-17/news5.html

FORMER Caroni (1975) Ltd workers are entitled to free agricultural and housing land, says Ramesh Maharaj, head of the T&T Civil Rights Association and the MP for Tabaquite.

Maharaj was addressing former sugar workers who attended a special meeting of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade Union at Rienzi Complex, Couva, yesterday, to discuss the ruling of Justice Lennox Deyalsingh.

The Supreme Court judge ordered the Government to hand over leases to the ex-sugar workers by June 2008.

The Government had earlier announced that the residential land was being sold for $20,000 to $30,000 a lot.

Maharaj said part of the VSEP package, which workers accepted when Caroni folded as a sugar producer in 2003, was the promise of land. He said, however, that nowhere in the agreement was it stated that workers would have to pay for the land.

Maharaj said all workers should be entitled to residential land regardless if they own property or not. He said to deny any former sugar worker that right would be unfair.

Maharaj said if the Government intended to appeal the decision of the Supreme Court, he had plans to put legal and political pressure on them to the point where Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his Cabinet could be jailed for acting in contempt of court.

Maharaj said he intended to approach the Appeal Court and Privy Council to have these matters dealt with within a few months if the Government planned to appeal the judgment.

He said the Government intended to defraud sugar workers by transferring the land assets from Caroni (1975) Ltd to the State.

He said this would have put the union in a position where it could have got anything from Caroni (1975) Ltd if the ATSGWTU had gone to the Industrial Court.

Maharaj said the public statements made by Manning, John Rahael, a former minister of agriculture and Christine Sahadeo, former junior finance minister gave the assurance that Caroni workers would have the first priority to lands.

He said based on these statements, the matter was brought before the courts.

Maharaj said the workers could also legally block any individual or group outside the former sugar workers from grabbing Caroni lands before they get their leases.

Heavy rains delay sugar crop

By Leah Mathura-Dookhoo

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2006-01-17/business3.html

The sugar cane season, which was supposed to begin yesterday, has been put on hold for another week, owing to bad weather and floods over the past month.

Yesterday, CEO of the Sugar Manufacturing Company Ltd (SMCL) Andre Guyadeen said the situation is worse than in years past, as fields are now saturated with water.

Guyadeen said while next Monday has been set for the start of the crop season by the SMCL, officials from the Sugar Industry Team (SIT) are monitoring the situation.

“This weather had caused us a lot of losses, but we are hoping we will make up for it in April,” Guyadeen said.

He refused to state the monetary extent of those losses.

Guyadeen said staffers, farmers and contractors were gearing up for a bumper season yesterday morning, however the heavy floods in central and south Trinidad lead to the postponement.

“The ground could take no more water. We are hopeful that things will get better next week,” he said.

Public relations officer of the Trinidad Islandwide Cane Farmers Association (TICFA) Lallan Rajaram, said yesterday that he too was disappointed over the delay in the start of the crop as farmers were the ones losing out financially.

Rajaram explained that even though the season did not start on its stipulated date, transport contractors and SMCL employees were protected by a guarantee agreement which will see them receive their monthly salaries.

But this is not the same for farmers.

“The last time a farmer got a cheque from SMCL was in August. With that money he had to take care of this family, his crop and his equipment. So, you see the problems they are in,” Rajaram said.

“Cane farmers have been waiting for the longest while for the start of the season, now with changing weather patterns they have to wait longer. The whole thing about sugar is that it needs dry weather.”

Rajaram remains doubtful that the season will begin in the next two weeks.

He said it was because of this TICFA submitted a written proposal to Agriculture Minister Jarrette Narine on Wednesday calling for an increase in the price of cane per tonne.

He said this was done in an effort to assist farmers who have suffered great losses since the beginning of the year.

But, Rajaram said when the issue was brought up during a meeting on Friday with SIT led by Wayne Innis, his members were told that they were not aware that a proposal had been handed in for an increase in the price of cane.

Rajaram said while SMCL’s target for the year is 600,000 tonnes of canes which will produce 60,000 tonnes of sugar, he is doubtful that it will materialise.

“We have never reached that goal and with all the problems we’re having I don’t think it will happen.”

Realistically, he said, for 2006, farmers can produce 45,000 tonnes of sugar from 450,000 tonnes of cane.

At present, cane farmers receive $180 per tonne for canes sold to the SMCL. They are now calling for $218.

Meanwhile, president general of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union, (ATSGWTU), Rudranath Indarsingh said the failure of the crop to begin came as no surprise, since the industry is run by a group of energy experts who have no background in agriculture.

Govt moves to hand over Caroni residential lots

link : http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-08-28/news6.html


By Peter Balroop
 
Government is moving to hand over residential lots to ex-Caroni (1975) Ltd workers, the Senate was told on Friday.

About 7,000 of them were already b allotted two-acre plots of land for farming during the past few weeks.

The Senate was also told on Friday that a powerful food import lobby was intent on throttling all farming efforts in this country.

Senator Christine Sahadeo, Minister in the Ministry of Finance, gave the Senate a breakdown of the timelines for distribution of 7,235 residential lots.

She also said new farmers would get back-up in terms of vegetable crop selection and marketing help, as well as have access to a food- processing facility.

Government was bringing in Ministry of Agriculture farming experts to help the farmers, she added.

Sahadeo, however, was severely criticised by Senate Opposition leader Wade Mark, who described the PNM's "premeditated" treatment of Caroni workers as the amputating of their legs, giving them motorised wheelchairs, and then leaning back to bask in their gratitude.
Mark called on the Government to account for every plot of land that had been distributed, even before the Parliament had completed legislation for divestment of Caroni's 76,000 acres of land, and the use to which it would be put.

He also mocked the Government's agricultural policy, contending that the PNM was intent on fooling people because the reality was T&T was being held to ransom by "a very powerful food import lobby."

In her contribution to the debate on the report by the special select committee of the Senate that considered the Caroni (1975) Ltd Vesting Bill, Sahadeo said it was disconcerting to see the level of criticism that was being heaped on the Government for the retraining programme for the Caroni ex-workers.

She said she had been with the workers every step of the way, and they were happy with the new skills they had learnt, but it seemed certain elements in T&T society, including the Opposition UNC, were insisting that they (the ex-workers) remain bogged down in agriculture, when there were whole new worlds out there for them to conquer.

In terms of the agricultural land distribution, Sahadeo said the two-acre plots were capable of generating sustainable farming, and that the distribution of the plots was transparent.
Vowing that new farmers would be given help every step of the way, Sahadeo declared:
"We want to make Caroni workers' dreams come true."

A surplus in the monthly workers’ pension plan would soon be distributed, and Cabinet had agreed to rectify a $350-million deficiency in the daily-paid workers' pension plan.
Sahadeo said the Government was intent on honouring all of its commitments to the ex-Caroni workers, and she had pledged personally to ensure that this took place.
The same transparent process would be used for the residential lots distribution, as in the farming land, she said.

A total of 7,235 lots on 22 locations had been identified, but infrastructure had to be put in place before they were distributed.

The Government estimated that 1,100 lots would be distributed in 2005, 3,200 in 2006, and the remaining 2,400 in 2007.
 
Sahadeo said farmers would get 30-year leases, with the option to renew, with the codicil that the land would revert to the State if productive farming was not carried out.
"I'm comfortable and confident that everyone will benefit, and we will see a reduction in food prices," Sahadeo said.

In his contribution, Mark zeroed in on Gilbert Park as one area of Caroni lands that were distributed even before Parliament had completed its deliberations on the vesting of the state enterprise's 76,000 acres.

He asked Sahadeo to explain how the W Connection club was able to put up a steel structure there and who gave the organisation the authority to take over Gilbert Park in California.
Sahadeo said there was an informal arrangement between the State and the club, without leases or remuneration, in which the club would occupy and maintain the park so the public could continue to enjoy the facilities.

Sahadeo said before the shutdown of Caroni, 50-odd land lease deals had been entered into, and deposits accepted, so the Government had to honour them.

Since the shutdown, however, no new deals had been made, she declared.

Mark called for a listing of all of the land transactions the State had entered into since the UNC demitted office in December, 2001, with respect to Caroni lands.

Until that was produced, he said, he would say no more on the subject.
Mark said he heard Sahadeo talking "glibly and loosely" about setting up an agro-processing plant for the Caroni farmers.

He said that was "like a pipe dream, whistling in the dark" since in his view the Government had absolutely no plans in place for T&T’s agricultural future.
Prime Minister Manning might produce some plans in the 2006 Budget presentation, said Mark, but no PNM 2020 Vision document had so far documented a comprehensive agricultural plan for the country.
 
"The reality is there is a very powerful food import lobby in this society," said Mark, who explained that this lobby’s philosophy was that, in these times of globalisation and trade liberalisation, it was cheaper to import than to grow food.

Warning that in the last three years, 700 million new consumers from India and China had come on the world market, Mark said there was a supply and demand crisis brewing, and that it was incumbent on all countries to take their food security seriously.

T&T imported more than $3 billion worth of food and food products annually, and the bill was rising, Mark declared. He said to speak of an agro-processing facility being set up was "almost laughable," since the PNM had done nothing in the last four years to address food production.
The PNM had "slaughtered" food production when it took the premeditated decision to close down Caroni.

Mark said the UNC had recognised Caroni needed restructuring, but not in the way the PNM did it.
This was like blowing off the legs of the workers, providing them with motorised wheelchairs, then asking them for their gratitude.
 
"That is what this regime did to Caroni workers and their families." ,
Mark said he believed there was a loophole in the legislation which would allow Cabinet the ability to increase the proportion of Caroni's 76,000 acres for commercial and industrial development to some 42 per cent, when the UNC was adamant that 90 per cent of the land must be devoted to agriculture.
 
He said he supported the minority report of the special select committee submitted by the UNC members, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and Jennifer Jones-Kernahan, which is diametrically opposed to the majority report of the committee chaired by Senator Joan Yuille-Williams.
After a heated debate on Friday, however, the report was passed by the Senate, with little—if any—of the reservations expressed by the Independent and Opposition benches being taken into consideration.
 
 

©2004-2005 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited

Sugar union: No shortage of cane cutters

By Yvonne Webb

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-01-11/business2.html

The All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade union has contradicted Government’s assertion that there is a shortage of cane cutters.

At the last post-Cabinet media briefing, acting Agriculture Minister John Rahael said they were considering importing cane cutters from Guyana because of a shortage locally.

He said he was told by the Trinidad Islandwide Cane Farmers’ Association that their cane was not being harvested even though they were paying cane cutters $150 a day.

ATSGWTU president general Rudranath Indarsingh also said statements by Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, that former sugar workers had moved on and unemployment was down, were inaccurate.

Indarsingh said: “There is no shortage of cane cutters. It is a straight case of the former sugar workers not being willing to commit themselves to the sugar industry because of the dehumanising and Cepep-like conditions under which they are being asked to perform work for private contractors and cane farmers.”

He said Government did not understand the reality as it related to the current status of the sugar industry and the unemployment figures in central and south Trinidad as a result.

“Minister Rahael must understand that the industrial relations terrorism started out in 2003 with the closure of Caroni (1975) Ltd and continues to exist because none of the cane farming associations can provide or facilitate decent conditions of work, which are articulated by the International Labour Organisation,” the trade unionist said.

“The reality is that persons have not moved on or gained what is recognised by the ILO as sustainable employment, because ex-sugar workers have not been able to gain employment which pays wages above the levels of the minimum wages order and unionised terms and conditions of employment,” he added.

Sugar union blames Govt for ex-Caroni worker’s murder

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2004-10-05/news17.html

The All-Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade Union says Government must take responsibility for the brutal murder of unionist Baldath Balgobin.

Rudranath Indarsingh, president general of the ATSGWTU, called on Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul, yesterday, to spare no efforts in hunting down and bringing to justice Balgobin’s killer, or killers.

The body of Balgobin, 51, was found bound in the trunk of his taxi behind Presentation College in Chaguanas, on Saturday morning.

Indarsingh said the Felicity father of three was a man of tremendous commitment and humility.

He added that the union felt Balgobin met his death because of the failure of Government and Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Christine Sahadeo, to honour its commitments to former Caroni (1975) Ltd employees in a timely manner.

“Therefore, the union is of the opinion that the blood of Mr Balgobin is on the hands of the Government and Minister Sahadeo,” Indarsingh asserted.

He said Balgobin turned to plying his car for hire to look after the welfare of his family, after he was retrenched from his job at Caroni because of Government’s restructuring policy.

“If Government had distributed the agricultural plots of land to the ex-employees, Mr Balgobin would have been generating revenue for the well-being of his family by being involved in an agricultural enterprise,” Indarsingh argued.

He said Balgobin was denied further income because the Government had not considered the union’s proposal for lowering the entitlement age for receiving a pension from the daily-paid contributory pension plan.

With the crime rate escalating, he said he feared many more ex-sugar workers’ families may suffer the same fate as Balgobin. YW

Clear air on Caroni lands - Indarsingh

By Yvonne Webb

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2003-05-27/news6.html

The All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union yesterday issued a call to Government to clear the air on who gave permission to millionaire Pastor Vishnu Lutchmansingh to occupy Caroni (1975) lands, in contravention of a High Court injunction.

At the same time, President General of the Union, Rudy Indarsingh, said Government must publicly declare what is its general plan for the 77,000 acres of Caroni’s land.

At a news conference held at the Union’s Rienzi Complex headquarters, Indarsingh said that since February 17, 2003, ATSGWTU had been granted an interim injunction by the High Court, preventing Caroni from disposing of any assets, except its stock in trade.

“Recent developments seem to indicate that this order, which was handed down by the High Court, has been violated at Chin Chin Junction, Cunupia,” Indarsingh said, adding that Government is bent on giving away Caroni lands to its friends and financiers.

“Because, here it is we have an individual, Pastor Lutchmansingh, who is supposed to be a law-abiding citizen, apparently violating an order of the court and also implicating the Prime Minister as having given him permission to go on the lands of Caroni.”

Indarsingh questioned the role of the Estate Management Business Development Company, created to manage the lands of Caroni, in terms of facilitating the process alluded to by Lutchmansingh.

Lutchmansingh is reported as saying that Prime Minister Patrick Manning gave him permission to occupy the land, which he purchased from businessman Junior Gopaul. Caroni has contested the claim, serving the pastor with a notice to desist from trespassing on its land.

“The union is concerned about what will become of the most valuable asset of Caroni, which is its 77,000 acres of land,” Indarsingh said.

He noted that earlier this year, Caroni had to move in on trespassers in an area near the Learning Resource Centre and reclaim its land.

At present, he said, 11 acres of Caroni lands are being graded at La Fortune, Woodland, in field number BV 50, for the construction of an asphalt mixing facility.

He said this is a total deviation from Government’s thrust, as enunciated by Agriculture Minister John Rahael earlier this year, that the most valuable assets of the company, its prime agriculture land, must be retained for this purpose.