Teachers plan strike

-after gov't rejects proposed wages and benefits pact

With government rejecting the majority of salary and non-salary measures in a multi-year agreement proposed by the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), the new school year could begin with a strike by teachers.

“Let them know we will not be there when school opens,” Stacy Benjamin told the union’s central executive at an impromptu meeting that was called by union members following a failed attempt at negotiation between the GTU and a government delegation.

Her sentiment was echoed by nearly 100 teachers who had gathered at the union’s headquarters yesterday. Though the number was relatively small, the gathering saw representation from a large number of the union’s 53 branches, who informed the decision to begin industrial action in the preterm, which begins on August 27th. The action, which will take the form of a complete withdrawal of service, will continue into the first week of the new school year.

Hours earlier, teachers, who came from East Berbice, Corentyne, Linden, Essequibo, Buxton, North, South and East Georgetown as well as Central East Bank and Region Nine, had spent hours outside the Ministry of Education’s Brickdam office waiting for results from their executive.

The teachers, who told Stabroek News that they were prepared to turn over school keys and shut the system down, had already been upset after Minister of Education Nicolette Henry took the opportunity to reprimand them for “poor performance” at the National Grade Six Assessment.

“How can you come out here and tell us that increases will be linked to performance? Well, we will tell you, we will perform when we are satisfied. Teachers in Guyana haven’t been satisfied for years so don’t come asking us for anything,” one teacher declared. She referenced the stellar performance of students in countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Finland, where teachers are regarded as engineers, before lamenting that in Guyana teachers are seen as “nothing.”

“So expect nothing from us,” the visibly frustrated woman said. She was unprepared to accept anything other than the best from a government which she said had already fed itself while public servants starved.

“As a mother, if my friend give me a box of food will I eat it alone? No, I will feed my children first then as the mother eat what is left back. What they did with that 50% is feeding themselves before their children. They should’ve fed us first before they even thought of feeding themselves,” she stressed, while making reference to the contentious 50% increase that government granted to ministers shortly after assuming office in 2015.

Her colleague noted that the minister would have been better served by telling the teachers what the government’s counter-

proposal was.

“Don’t come out to talk to us and tell us we’ll hear the proposal when the executive finish reading it. The executive does what we tell them to, so come to us and tell us what you have offered and we will tell the executive what to tell you,” she stressed, while adding that the minister failed to display the skills of a leader.

“Make a proposal. Be decisive. As HM, we have to be decisive every day and we ask no less of the Minister,” she stressed while a representative from the union’s North Georgetown branch declared that as a teacher he deserved a livable wage.

He would repeat this call later at the impromptu meeting after the union representatives left the ministry.

Refused

For three hours, a seven-member team from the union, led by President Mark Lyte, met with 10 government representatives, including Henry, Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally and Minister with responsibility for Labour Keith Scott, to discuss government’s response to the report from a joint task force set up by President David Granger last November. Despite government representation on the task force, the administration had recently signaled that the proposals outlined in the report had financial implications that cannot be met. The government team refused the union’s request for a 40% increase on 2015 salaries and proposed instead to offer a ballpark figure of $700 million to facilitate an increase in salaries for all teachers

(Terrence Thompson photo) For more than four hours yesterday teachers from as far as East Berbice/Corentyne waited outside the Ministry of Education on Brickdam to hear the results of the negotiations between the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU).

The two sides meeting at the ministry yesterday (Ministry of Education photo)

A section of the group of teachers who met with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) Executive yesterday to demand industrial action after the Ministry of Education refused to grant the majority of the proposed salary and non-salary measures requested by the union in 2015.