Strike by teachers to enter Week 3 from Monday

The ongoing strike by teachers across the country will continue for a third week from next Monday, President of Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Mark Lyte has announced today.

“It’s day 10 of the Guyana Teachers’ Union strike, and we are still outside. Yes, we are still outside on day 10, and we are going to be outside on Monday, we are going to be outside on Tuesday because the strike continues, until, until,” Lyte said in a statement.

He said the Government has “blatantly refused” to engage in collective bargaining with the representatives of the teachers, which he said is in violation of the country’s labour laws.

“There has to be an olive branch, and we have to ask ourselves? When will this end. When will the stand off end? We recognize that the Government, seeming to want to play a wait game, to wait out the period that we had indicated that the strike would take place and the union has written indicating that the strike would continue indefinitely,” he said.

Lyte said the GTU wrote to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education last week, setting out the conditions under which the teachers are prepared to return to the classroom, but that letter has been met with silence.

The conditions include addressing the financial issues laid out by the union.

Today, Lyte joined the teachers in Linden in front of the Department of Education for their protest.

In Georgetown, hundreds of teachers, parents and other supporters picketed outside the Ministry of Education’s Brickdam Office.

GTU General Secretary, Coretta McDonald told reporters that while the Union and the Education Ministry were meeting on a range of policy issues, the Government has always shied away from addressing the substantive issue of salaries.

“GTU is simply asking that, one, for us to resume our talks, we have to first have the Ministry of Education with immediate effect restart the deduction of the dues. The deduction of teachers’ dues is where teachers have legally written to the Ministry of Education giving them permission to deduct $700 from their salaries and remit same to the GTU. The second condition that we are going to be asking for is that the Ministry of Education and by extension the Government, do just what the previous administration did. Take into consideration the meagre salaries that teachers are receiving, and that no teacher would lose pay. Thirdly, we would ask that the Ministry of Education come to us with a counter proposal, so that we can start our talks,” McDonald explained.

The GTU is pushing for an across-the-board increase in salaries for teachers as part of a multi-year agreement.

Mackenzie High School Teacher and Linden Town Councillor, Vanessa Kissoon, said Government’s non response to the issues facing teachers, is a sign of disrespect.

“We are not asking for much, and all we are asking for is collective bargaining. Just come to the table, have a discussion, let’s have a conversation but not with who you choose, we would like you to speak to the representatives, the Guyana Teachers’ Union Representatives,” Kissoon said.

On Thursday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo indicated that the Government would resort to online classes should the strike continue to minimize learning loss. Today, Ms. Kissoon made it clear that teachers will not be offering their services in any form until their concerns are addressed.

“We ain’t doing no classes. At least we are not doing any classes. We ain’t online, we ain’t offline, we ain’t in classrooms, we ain’t around the line, we ain’t on no line. We outside!” Kissoon said.

Kissoon said in 2018, President Irfaan Ali, while in Opposition was supportive of the call by teachers for increases salaries. She said now that he is in Government, his support has shifted.

(Svetlana Marshall)