With the Government holding firm to its position that it will only negotiate salaries for teachers from this year moving forward and not the 2019-to 2023 period, the Guyana Teachers’ Union has announced that a decision has been taken for teachers to resume their strike action.

At a press conference today, GTU officials said the decision to resume strike action from this Thursday has been taken on the insistence of the members of the GTU over the collective bargaining process that has not been moving.

The GTU maintains that the Government’s reluctance not to meet with the union on the outstanding 2019-2023 issues, flies in the face of collective bargaining and the country’s labour laws.

The Union said it has extended enough patience to the Government.

“We believe that enough patience was exhibited by the Union to allow MOE/Government to arrive at a satisfactory position regarding salary increases for teachers. The repeated salary impositions in December 2021, 2022, and 2023 are a clear indication that the government is unwilling to engage the GTU meaningfully. The strike will officially resume on Thursday, May 9, 2024 and continue until further notice”, the union said.

The Government has been insisting that it will only meet with the union to discuss salary increases and other related issues from this year and forward. The GTU submitted its 2019-2023 proposal to the Government in 2020, and there has been no movement or negotiation on the issue.

Three months ago the GTU started strike action, but halted the action after filing a Court case over the Government’s planned decision to slash the salaries of striking teachers and to also discontinue deducting union dues from the teachers for the union.

Teachers went back to work as the Court case was being heard. An earlier effort at mediation at first appeared to be working, but then the Government started to insist that it would only be dealing with negotiations for this year moving forward.

Those discussions never resumed, and in a decision, High Court Judge Sandil Kissoon ruled that the teachers were justified in their strike action and therefore the Government could not withdraw any money for their salaries over their strike. The Judge also hammered the Government for discontinuing to deduct union dues and stated that the move was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The union said despite that ruling and the Judge pointing out that the Government had failed to begin collective bargaining for the years 2019 to 2023, the Government has still not budged from its position.

The continuing of the strike is coming at a time when high school students will be writing their CXC examinations.

Related posts:

GTU contemplating return to strike action if salary negotiations do not restart GTU files Court action to block Government’s plan to cut salaries of striking teachers GTU to offer teachers partial strike relief for lost salaries during strike action Linden Teachers fully onboard GTU’s call for strike action