Three of the four sugar mills owned by the State Sugar Council (CEA) have been paralyzed for the last three days. Workers at the Consuelo, Porvenir and Río Haina mills had refused to work until the government made good on its repeated promises to deliver their back-pay. CEA delivered RD$27 million in owed salary to workers at the Consuelo and Porvenir mills, but neither one has resumed operations because sugar growers are now refusing to deliver cane to these mills because of unpaid government debt to them for their product. Currently only the Barahona mill is operating, making it ever more likely that the DR will not fulfill its 1999 quota for refined sugar exports to the U.S. market.
