Region Ten teachers meet GTU General Secretary

Sep 05, 2018 News

– advised to continue strike

Teachers yesterday converged in the streets of Linden in even greater numbers in protest action and picketed the Region Ten Education Department before once again heading to LICHAS for a meeting with GTU General Secretary Coretta McDonald.
Mc Donald exhorted the teachers to remain in the streets until they are properly remunerated.
She further told the teachers to keep the faith and consolidate the strike action as they are not paving the way for themselves, but for those teachers that are now being trained.
Alluding to the 40% that the teachers are currently striking for, McDonald said that “it is just a proposal, it is not written in stone, and it is negotiable since the GTU is willing to talk around it.”
Mc Donald further posited that teachers cannot “take care and selflessness to the banks, to pay their mortgages, or to the supermarkets; and so the issue remains a bread and butter one.”
The teachers consequently pledged to continue the strike action, for the rest of the week.
Later in the day McDonald on a radio programme on 104.3 Power Fm exhorted parents to come out in support of teachers in their strike action.
“I want you to say to the Ministry of Education and to this Government that our children’s interest is of paramount importance to us and we want to have an amicable solution to this whole situation.”
McDonald said that what is happening now, did not start yesterday or last week but has been going on for three years and that it has reached the stage where the Union and its members have had enough.
“So please understand and be considerate and supportive and let us work to resolve this issue.”
Though the GTU has proposed a forty percent increase for Teachers, the Union subsequently said that it is prepared to negotiate.
Yesterday teachers across Guyana again took to the streets protesting for an increase in salaries, while the Education Ministry engaged trainees and retirees to man several schools. Here in Linden teachers converged in front the Education Department and vowed to continue the strike action until their demands are met. (Enid Joaquin)