Workers’ unions threaten “shut-down” of UG to retaliate downsizing calls

May 24, 2014 News

Plans being touted by Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Guyana (UG), Professor Jacob Opadeyi, to slash programmes and by extension, staff, are being met with threats of a total shutdown of the tertiary institution.
This stern warning was vocalised by executive members of the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) during a press conference venued in the Senior Common Room, Turkeyen Campus.
The concerns of the Unions were previously directed to University’s administration,

From left: Dr Mellissa Ifill, Mr Bruce Haynes and Dr Pat Francis

particularly the VC, at a recent meeting. “The Unions will not countenance any reduction in staff; cutting programmes means cutting jobs,” said UGSSA President, Dr. Pat Francis, even as she alluded to disclosures by Professor Opadeyi which suggests that he is prepared to cut programmes if there is insufficient funds to manage the University.
Moreover, she underscored that “if there is any fallout from this impasse, and if there are any departments which will find themselves in jeopardy the unions will call for a closure of the University.”
According to Dr. Francis, “any loss of job will also mean that the World Bank loan of US$10.1 million which we are currently executing will be in jeopardy. Who is going to execute the curriculum and run the labs when we get them? Will we go back to the days when we had the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) money and we trained a whole lot of people and all of that came to nought? Is it some plan or plot to sabotage this US$10.1 million effort?”
According to Dr. Francis, the unions are not prepared to have programmes “cut away” merely because they are not well subscribed even as she pointed that “I do not support cuts, I support reform…”
“This is a state-funded university, this is not a private business and as an academic community, surely there is the intelligence to do the reform; if we don’t have the intelligence to do the reform then surely we need to close down,” asserted Dr. Francis.
She intimated that based on the deliberations of the VC, the Berbice Campus and the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE) are likely to be among the first to be seriously impacted. And it is her belief that many of the departments likely to be affected have not even been consulted meaningfully.
“We cannot have other programmes on campus (Turkeyen) which may not have large numbers such as History and Art being ‘cut away’. We will not allow it and I say categorically we will not!” exclaimed the UGSSA President as she reiterated her conviction that “we are prepared to close the university down…we are very unhappy with the current administration and the Council’s actions.”
Dr. Francis further amplified the need for the University to do whatever is necessary to advocate for the monies allocated for the Ministry of Finance-managed Loan Agency.
The Loan Agency for over a decade has been facilitating loans to students to pay their tuition fee, a $450 million allocation in the 2014 Budget that was not supported by the parliamentary opposition.
But according to the UGSSA President, since the Loan Agency was established to manage a revolving fund it should have, by now, been self-sufficient and not necessarily be dependent on an annual allocation from the Budget.
She even went on to recommend that an audit be conducted into the operation of the Loan Agency as she added that “the University unions cannot do much about that, but maybe the University’s administration can do something…”
And since the Loan Agency is one that is expected to help students buffer a hike in tuition fee, Dr. Francis emphasised the importance of having its operation addressed urgently.
As she touched on the much touted tuition fee hike, she intimated to media operatives that “we are not in agreement with increasing the university students’ fees without concomitant increases in quality. We are not in agreement with that and we have put forward our own proposal for the increase in students’ fees…” she added.
“We are saying the fees can be increased, and don’t lets go with semantics about adjusting and all of this; it is an increase…people have to find the extra money and we are saying that mechanisms must be put in place so that students will be able to afford that same education.” And so in light of the fact that the university will soon be catering to an increased number of students, the unions have made recommendations to the VC to address the existing situation. “Whether or not he wants to do it, the ball is really in his court at this moment because we have said to him that the University community is ready and willing to increase its programmes and thereby increase students numbers,” said Dr. Francis.
“If he wants to take another month, another year to bring it to fruition, to call on the Deans to what needs to be done, so be it, but the unions are saying very clearly that we will not countenance the loss of one job,” she firmly asserted.
According to Dr. Francis the unions are not taking the threat to “cut-away” various departments and jobs lightly since even before the recent fall-out the VC had shared similar sentiments.
UGSSA Vice President, Dr. Mellissa Ifill, disclosed too that the VC has even intimated plans to not issue new contracts even to workers currently on staff, a development she believes will severely affect the delivery of a number of courses at the university. “It is not only the lowly subscribed programmes that will be affected but virtually all programmes at the university will be impacted.” Senior lectures and professors at the university on contracts currently amount to less than a dozen.
Sharing his conviction on the unfolding situation at the tertiary institution too was UGWU President, Bruce Haynes, who underscored that it is critical that efforts are made to consider that any cut will affect many staffers, particularly those at the Berbice Campus. “You have a lot of people with years of service, how are you going to deal with that…even now you are not even dealing with some of their concerns because of the lack of financial resources,” Haynes observed.
He however, noted that the feasibility of such a move becoming a reality will be dependent on the administration being able to come up with “a nice little package that is going to satisfy most if not all…”
Calls to Professor Opadeyi’s mobile phone, to solicit a comment on the development, went unanswered and his secretary, when contacted yesterday, informed this publication that he had left for the day.