Contractor for Golden Grove cane production
SPECULATION is rife in St Thomas that Fred M Jones (FMJ) Estates Limited will manage sugar cane production for the Seprod-owned Golden Grove Sugar Company, after Seprod makes some major structural changes at its subsidiary this year.
The decision, Jamaica Observer sources said, followed a meeting between Seprod’s management and representatives of the three trade unions representing the Golden Grove workers — the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, the National Workers Union, and the University and Allied Workers’ Union — in Kingston on Tuesday.
It is understood that at the meeting, Seprod’s new boss, Richard Pandohie, informed the unions that it intended to contract its cane growing and harvesting, while controlling the factory operations.
Seprod has not confirmed which company will be contracted to operate the estate, but it seems likely that they will turn to the 66-year-old family-owned FMJ, which is currently involved in beef and dairy cattle.
This is expected to affect 500 jobs at the sugar estate, but the majority of these workers are likely to be retained, only this time as contract workers with reduced benefits.
Fireworks are, however, expected to come from the most unlikely people, factory workers, who see redundancy as an opportunity for a financial windfall.
Trade union sources claim that the workers are under the impression that whatever happens, work will still be available at the factory, and are opting for a windfall from the 14-week severance pay, after three months’ employment, and normal redundancy pay for those with over two years’ service.
Whatever the outcome at a meeting tomorrow, Seprod is expected to press on with its plans to plug a financial haemorrhage at Golden Grove, which Pandohie describes as “the elephant in the room”.
Seprod bought the former Duckenfield estate and factory in St Thomas from the Government in 2009, and has been operating it through its subsidiary, Golden Grove Sugar Company, since. However, after losing some $2 billion on the $3-billion investment, Pandohie is insisting that it cannot be “business as usual”.