Thousands of teachers from across the country are set to go on strike from Monday, as the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) initiates industrial action over Government’s failure to address the Multi-Year Agreement proposed by the Union.
Since 2020, the GTU has been pushing for an across-the-board increase in salaries as part of a multi-year agreement.
It had proposed a 25% salary increase for 2019, and 20% each year for the years 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 but instead it was met with imposed salary-increases and non-salary benefits.
GTU General Secretary, Coretta McDonald, has said teachers have had enough. They are ready to withdraw their services for a period of two weeks initially, starting Monday.
“Our teachers are up and ready. There is no one from within the GTU or the arms of GTU, which are the branches, none of our members there are intimidating or threatening our teachers. Our teachers are fed up, they are tired, and they are ready to go,” McDonald told News Source this afternoon.
She said the strike will take several forms, but will see teachers all across Guyana sending a strong message to the Government that they will not sit idly by and allow their rights to be trampled upon.
“We are going to be withdrawing our services, which means there are times when our teachers are going to be going into the streets; there are times when our teachers are going to be at home; there are times when our teachers are going to be assembled at the Union Halls that we have,” she explained.
The General Secretary explained that in 2020, the GTU submitted the proposed multi-year agreement to the Ministry of Education, but months later it was told that the Office of the President would be handling all financial matters.
Minister of Governance, Gail Teixeira, was then mandated by President Irfaan Ali to facilitate discussions on the multi-year agreement, which covers salary increases, non-salary issues such as scholarships and duty-free concessions. However, those talks never bore any fruit.
Given the posture of Ministry of the Education, and the Office of the President, the General Secretary said the GTU wrote to the Ministry of Labour in October, indicating that talks between the union and the government had broken down, resulting in the initiation of the process of conciliation.
It was noted that the conciliatory process was never advanced because the Labour Ministry never responded.
McDonald said GTU wrote the Labour Ministry again, and requested arbitration, but that request was met with deafening silence.
She said it was not until the union threatened industrial action this year, that it got a call from the Ministry of Labour requesting copies of the earlier letters sent.
However, she said instead of responding positively to the union’s request, the Ministry of Labour responded with a warning that the impeding strike would be illegal.
“Now, we would expect the Ministry of Labour to be very neutral but over the years, if you check that, you would recognize that the Ministry of Labour rather than being neutral between the two parties, they take a side.
And the Ministry of Labour always take the side of the Government. Which is shameful. The Ministry of Labour is supposed to be there to act as a mediator between the two parties, which ever two parties, whether it is GTU, Ministry of Education, whether it is the bauxite union and the bauxite company, but the Ministry of Labour doesn’t do that.
“And so, I want to cry shame on the Minister of Labour,” the General Secretary said.
McDonald said while teachers are the nation’s builders, they have not been treated well.
She said instead of engaging the Union in meaningful consultation, the President selected a ‘handful’ of teachers last year to hear of their concerns, while ignoring thousands of other teachers and the union.
“These teachers were tricked into going to State House and so, they said what was affecting them personally, and not what was affecting members across this country.
Again, we want to cry shame on the president, who claims to be loving, and caring, and understanding, what workers are going through in this country. We want to cry shame on him again,” she said.
The GTU General Secretary said while the Government continues to heed to the cries of the sugar sector, and has responded to the cries of other groups, it continues to ignore teachers, while issuing threats against their planned strike a
