TALKS between the trade unions representing employees of Golden Grove Sugar Company in St Thomas and its owner, Seprod, are scheduled to start at the company’s head office in Kingston, tomorrow.

The talks follow closely a recent announcement by Seprod’s new chief executive officer, Richard Pandohie, of steps being contemplated by the company to stem the losses at Golden Grove.

But, resolving the issues may not be as easy as the stakeholders would hope.

Since Pandohie identified Golden Grove as the “elephant” in Seprod’s vault earlier this month, there has been much speculation, not only about the future of the factory and its supplementary cane-growing activities, but also the effect a restructuring of the operations could have on the lives of over 1,000 workers and their families, as well as the threat to the economy of the parish, already declared the poorest in Jamaica, in losing such a major employer of labour.

But, Pandohie told Seprod’s recent annual general meeting that the management has drawn a line in the sand.

“We have calculated our cost to walk away from the operations, and now our mandate is to ensure that our costs do not increase from here on,” Pandohie said.

He added that his company had invested $3 billion over the years to improve the operations and expand the cane supply at Golden Grove.

“We have been unable to make the operation profitable, running up losses in excess of $2 billion. This year will also be disappointing with the harvest already completed,” he added.

“Can you imagine no sugar production for 2015/16? That would cause serious economic problems,” reacted deputy island supervisor of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), Harold Brown, who represents the union’s sugar employees.

Seprod has been the lifeblood of St Thomas’s economy for several years now, through its investments in sugar production, milk and juice production at Serge Island, and a number of cattle rearing farms around the parish.

Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) caretaker for St Thomas Eastern Delano Seiveright on Wednesday called on the Minister of Agriculture Derrick Kellier to immediately look into the issue, which he said could become catastrophic.

“Given the fact that the company directly employs 1,200 cane workers and indirectly affects the lives of another 5,000 residents, in what is the poorest and most underdeveloped parish in Jamaica, with unemployment exceeding 50 per cent in several districts, the Agriculture Ministry must immediately intervene,” Seiveright insisted.

However, there appears to be a conflict of too many interests at Golden Grove to make any changes to be undertaken as seamless as necessary to protect the economic and social viability of the parish.

While Seprod is concerned about its losses and the need for better marketing terms to improve its viability, the unions are concerned about their lack of control over the workers, who seem to be taking their own decisions. Then there is the fear within the parish that any restructuring of the sugar operations will deal a “death blow” to its fragile economy.

The Jamaica Observer understands that, despite formally representing the workers, the three trade unions involved — BITU, University and Allied Workers Union and the National Workers Union — have very little control over these workers, some of whom seem to want redundancy which they expect will provide them with a windfall by Christmas.

Informal leadership within the ranks of the workers has been allegedly calling the tune in recent years and, in the process, has caused work stoppages which have not been sanctioned by the unions.

In addition, Seprod seems to be looking at the possibility of putting out to contract most, if not all, of its cane production activities, including planting, growing and harvesting of the sugar cane, to more efficient cane growers in the parish and focus on the operations at the factory. This would mean no statutory deductions, but would affect several benefits enjoyed by staff.

However, the key to the issues seems to be how the Government and, in particular, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries responds to the demands being made by Seprod.

For example, Seprod wants Golden Grove to be free to sell its own sugar, like the China-owned Pan Caribbean has done, instead of having to sell to Jamaica Cane Products Sales Limited, which operates as a marketing agency of the Sugar Industry Authority.

These issues are likely to crowd the agenda for the meetings between Seprod and the trade unions and other stakeholders on Golden Grove’s future. In the meantime, the parish of St Thomas contemplates the future of its sugar industry, which has been passing from the hands of Government to the private sector and back, over the last two decades, without any clear indication how it will survive the constant turmoil.