Sugar grower
lays off 180

But Gay & Robinson plans to
bring back the workers early next year

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Kauai sugar grower Gay & Robinson Inc. will lay off 180 of its 273 employees but bring them back early next year, saying that not paying their wages for a month or more will stem some of its losses.

And Gay & Robinson, a family-owned sugar company, is blaming part of its troubles on the Hawaii-owned West Coast refinery that processes and markets Hawaii-grown sugar.

The Crockett, Calif., refiner, California & Hawaiian Sugar Co., wants to keep raw sugar prices low, and it is low prices that are partly behind the layoffs, Gay & Robinson said.

Alexander & Baldwin Inc., which owns C&H, said that as a big Hawaii grower itself, at its Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. on Maui, A&B also needs to make sugar growing profitable and itself has lost money at it. "It is not the refiners who are responsible for the cane growers' problems. Like any commodity business, refiners have both good and bad years," A&B said.

In fact, if it hadn't bought out the other Hawaii growers' interests in C&H in 1993, all of Hawaii's sugar companies would have lost more money than they have in recent years, A&B said.

The difference of opinion between A&B and Gay & Robinson probably won't be foremost in the minds of the Gay & Robinson workers, who face the holidays with no pay.

E. Alan Kennett, president and general manager, said prices and production are both down.

As a result, about 80 employees will be let go on Monday and another 100 on Dec. 1. They will be paid for Christmas and New Year's vacations and will come back Jan. 5.

"Despite the claims being made by the refiners, including C&H, that the federal sugar program is not working, the cane refiners are doing extremely well in 1997. However, the cane producers are really hurting," Kennett said.

A&B said C&H has been profitable this year but overall A&B has lost more money at C&H than it has earned since taking on full ownership of the refinery.

The last two years have been better, but only because of a restructuring and a 25 percent cut in staff at C&H, A&B said.