Tension rising in St Elizabeth sugar belt
THERE is growing tension among sugar workers in St Elizabeth following a decision by the Court of Appeal to uphold an injunction obtained by Algix Jamaica Limited against J Wray & Nephew, which has resulted in a suspension of operations at Appleton Estate in the parish.
Algix in January filed an appeal for Appleton to cease production of sugar, which has resulted in the cancellation of the 2016 sugar cane harvest. The sugar harvest normally runs from January through June. Algix, in filing the injunction, claimed that Appleton was discharging effluent from the sugar factory that was killing its fish, an allegation that J Wray & Nephew has denied. The fish company has since filed a US$49-million claim.
Appleton, which employs over 600 people, also caters to more than 800 third-party cane farmers who stand to lose upwards of $300 million because of non-production.
“It’s very dangerous; it’s a chain… because it affects every single solitary life in the community. We have children not going to school since January because their father only cuts cane and their mother probably work on the estate so they can’t find food and they can’t find money to send the children to school. The whole neighbourhood is suffering,” vice-president of the All Island Cane Farmers Association Garfield Salmon told the Jamaica Observer when the newspaper visited the parish recently.
Salmon owns approximately 50 acres of sugar cane and employs more than 100 people during harvesting.
“It goes far. Fertiliser businesses are losing; three trailer load of fertiliser would be coming to St Elizabeth per day. That is about 1,500 bags of fertiliser and that is now cut off. Talk about the chemical companies, that cut off, and talk about whom they employ, that cut off. So a lot of companies may soon have to start cutting off people too. It’s a multiplier effect anyway you take it. It’s a very dangerous thing happening. I can’t even count my loss right now,” he lamented.
“In a neighbourhood like this, this is what we know; this is what we’re used to. We don’t know anything else, so we put our lives in the sugar industry,” Salmon added.
“I am being affected every angle of my life. I can’t even look inna mi wife face again; I can’t even hug her up, I can’t kiss. Dem days deh done. And it’s the same way it becomes hate on the street. I don’t eat fresh water fish anymore and I won’t buy it. This is how serious it is, I tell you. This is not a joke situation, it is a very serious situation. If you take the food outta the dogs’ mouth they’re going to bite and the biting don’t start yet. Listening to people, it’s just going to be a revolution some day, some way,” he said.
Lincoln Thompson, a small sugar cane farmer from Siloah in the parish, told the Observer that the suspension of operations has impacted his life in a negative way.
“It a affect mi bad, very bad. Mi use sugar cane send mi three youth a school and one a graduate May and mi did a depend pon the little cane crop here now fi pay fi graduation,” a despondent Thompson said. “Mi nuh know wah fi do. Him owe all student loan and mi nuh know how it ah pay. A di little cane wi a depend pon, this a affect wi bad, bad. Mi used to making $200,000 a year and mi not even a go mek a penny now. Only mi wife have one little stall a di roadside and some time she nuh make $20. Cane affect the area bad, bad ennuh because a it everybody depend pon.”
His colleague, Carol Smith, who lives in the same community, is calling on the Government to intervene.
“Mi a plant cane fi more than 30 years now and mi nuh do nothing else. Mi work hard ennuh, and when mi look and see the crop lock dung mi nuh waah fi go rob nobody, so mi would want fi see di Government come help. A nuh mi one a suffer. If yuh walk and look at the shop the people dem buy dem something and it naah sell. Right yah now mi borrow money and cyah pay it back.
“Mi nuh waah go rob so mi just a watch and see. Di government affi help because Appleton is di centre of the community and di source of income. Mi owe Courts and cyah pay right now, so Government affi go do something,” he urged.
Another farmer, from the Thornton community in the parish who declined to give his name, said he has reached his limit.
“Anyhow mi did believe inna suicide you wouldn’t see me now. Believe mi, mi a tell you mi a suffer. Mi borrow di people dem money and cyah pay it back cause crop naah start. A mi family affi help me. From mi a go a school and mi a old man now a it help mi. If mi know who a mek mi a suffer suh mi reach a prison,” he warned.
Despite the suspension of production at Appleton, the company is still assisting its workers by making wage payments.
In the meantime, aquaculturist and managing director of Algix Jamaica Maurice Reynolds, in defending his company’s position to file the injunction, said it was not his intention to cause any suffering.
“It was never our intention for any of this to happen. What we want is for both Algix and Appleton to be able to operate without causing any infringement on each other,” Reynolds told the Observer.
The Observer attempted to make contact with Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Agriculture J C Hutchinson but repeated calls and text messages to his phone went unanswered.