WESTERN BUREAU – The more than 80 cane cutters employed to the Long Pond Sugar factory stayed off the job for the second consecutive day yesterday, but have tentatively agreed to meet with management today to hash out their differences.

They have threatened to stay away from the meeting, however, if union leaders and representatives from the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) are not present.

The Sugar Company of Jamaica consists of five estates: Frome, Monymusk, St Thomas Sugar Company, Bernard Lodge and Trelawny Sugar Company, which consists of Long Pond and Hampden.

The president of SCJ, Livingstone Morrison, was said to be at a meeting and could not be reached for a comment, yesterday.

Topping the cane cutters’ list of complaints are the issues of low salaries and unsuitable living conditions.

On Tuesday, the angry employees padlocked both entrances to the factory, preventing dozens of sugar cane-laden trucks from entering the compound. The entrances were also blocked with empty cane carts.

According to factory officials, the workers’ action resulted in an almost 60 per cent cut in cane-cutting operations. Long Pond processes between 1,000 and 1,200 tons of cane per day.

The stand-off began with a fire in a section of the fields on Saturday. There are conflicting reports about the origin of the fire.

One set of workers were called in to harvest the burnt field on Sunday, however the work was not completed and management tried to get the job done by using all the workers on Monday. The workers who were not hired for the Sunday job demanded extra pay for the job done on Monday. Management refused, and the cutters walked off the job.

On Tuesday, Calvin Brown, vice president in charge of human resource and resource development at the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ), described the cane-cutters’ action as illegal.

And he maintained that their complaints about the state of their living conditions had come as a complete surprise, as they had never raised the issue before. The SCJ official added, however, that steps are being taken to improve the housing at several the estates.

“At Frome, for example, we have spent significant sums to upgrade the cutters’ camp,” he said. “Out at St Thomas, we have embarked on a major housing programme with Food For The Poor, where we are constructing 73 family units.”

The workers have since made additional demands, including the removal of cane production manager, Reg Spence and industrial relations manager, John Cousins.

Both men, the cutters said, have reached retirement age and should be replaced.

“Them a redundant people from them reach age 65 and the field supervisor is over 80 and him still working,” one of the protestors fumed.