Company officials refuse to dialogue to settle grievances

More than 200 workers who gathered at Wisma Guthrie in Kuala Lumpur failed to get a chance to have a decent dialogue with Kumpulan Guthrie on 4 April 2002.

The workers were from Kamiri Estate and Changkat Salak Estate in Perak and Bukit Tinggi Estate, Midlands Estate and Ampar Tenang Estate in Selangor.

The workers had gathered from 11am, hoping that Guthrie would meet and consult with a delegation of workers. They unfurled banners and placards and chanted various slogans: �Guthrie kaya, pekerja miskin� (Guthrie rich, workers poor), �Kita kerja - dia kaya� (We work, they get rich), �Jangan hisap darah� (Don�t suck blood), "Guthrie - runding.� (Guthrie - negotiate).

But even as these cries pierced the usual tranquillity of the high-class Jalan Gelenggang area where Guthrie is located, Guthrie officials made an absurd request to send one representative. Even the police felt that Guthrie was being been unreasonable.

Losing Jobs, Losing Homes

The workers shrugged off this laughable request and sent them packing. The workers had come all the way to meet their employers after giving them ample notice, and they had matters of urgency to discuss. Most of the workers had lost their jobs after Guthrie decided to sell the estates for development or carry out replanting (from rubber to oil palm).

They had lost not only their jobs but also were about to lose their homes. Their grazing grounds were going to be seized from them. They were left high and dry with just a minimum compensation under the law (amounting to about RM300 per year of service), for their three generations of sacrifice to the company and the country.

The police intervened at one point and said that they had orders from the OCPD to disperse the people. The people who had gathered then decided that they would rather get arrested than go back empty handed. They even told the officer-in -charge to send in many trucks because that is how they will be leaving if the need arose.

Guthrie�s arrogant stand was matched by the solidarity and spirit of the workers. The workers then took the struggle a step forward by staging a sit-in at the only exit point of Wisma Guthrie. They sat down, sang workers songs and made speeches sharing their plight with the others.

This new approach bore fruit. Within a short while, the Deputy OCPD went into the building. Soon it was lunchtime. But the workers carried on, still spirited.

Maybe after realising that their lunch was at stake, Guthrie finally had to give in. The police brought along the reluctant Director of Plantations, Abu Hanifa. Sour-faced, he came down to collect the memorandum.

Two representatives read the memo as Abu Hanifa fidgeted impatiently. For workers gathered there, Abu Hanifa, it seemed represented the face of Guthrie: ungrateful. The workers were quite convinced that nothing but hunger drove him down to collect the memorandum - for if the workers had decided to stay on, none of them would have been able to go for lunch.

The workers have no illusions about Guthrie. But they will not give up, and this will certainly not be the last time they shake up Guthrie. Maybe in future they will learn to say at least thank you after exploiting the workers.

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