The General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers Union, Coretta Mc Donald has decried the salary adjustments announced for some categories of teachers yesterday by President Irfaan Ali, indicating that the majority of teachers will see no adjustments to their salaries.

The Union has pointed out that only 37% of the nation’s teachers stand to benefit from the salary adjustments.

In addition to bemoaning the adjustments as ‘meager’, the GTU General Secretary said it is also unfortunate that all teachers were not considered for an adjustment to their salaries.

She said the President and the government refused to consult the GTU before the adjustments in salaries for graduate teachers, yet the government cherry-picked parts of the GTU’s multi-year proposal and made some unilateral adjustments.

“We are extremely disappointed and dissatisfied at the manner at which this announcement of salary adjustments was made.  As a matter of fact, from as far back as 2011, the issue of de-bunching had been on the table, where all teachers would benefit from salary adjustments. Let it be known that this act of union busting and divisiveness by the President is clear and is viewed by all but he must be put on notice, that the GTU is one big family,” Ms. Mc Donald said.

Ms. Mc Donald said while there appears to be a move to divide the GTU, it remains united against any attempt by the Government to impose its will on teachers.

“The announcement by the President, we concluded is premature, insensitive, anti-working class, unprincipled and in our minds is just an ill-calculated jump from the roof which forces one to ask the question; Why is the President afraid of collective bargaining?, why is the President trying to demean teachers as if we have an animal farm in operation,” Mc Donald questioned.

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo declared yesterday that the government was not prepared to negotiate with unions that make unreasonable demands and are aligned to the Opposition.

However, Mc Donald said today that the duty of the GTU is to look out for the interest and the welfare of the teachers, since the Government seems to be unaware of the hardships that they are facing.

“We totally reject this act of bullyism, and therefore call on the President to rethink his approach and to allow for the process of collect bargaining to resume, which is an act of respecting the laws of Guyana,” she said.

The GTU has accused the Government of sidelining the union.

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