The union’s demands are unrealistic

Feb 11, 2024 Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – We can hardly take ourselves seriously; much less ask the government to do so. Take the case of the present strike by the teachers. Watching the teachers on the picket line and hearing their chants, leaves one with no better an understanding as to just what is the strike is about.

The teachers do not appear to know specifically what they are demanding. They know they want higher salaries.

If you are on the picket line, you must know specifically what it is you are striking for. But none of the teachers so far have articulated specifically just what specifically is being demanded of the government. Perhaps they do not know.

The teachers feel that this strike is about increasing their pay. If teachers understood the ridiculous increases that their union is demanding, they would return to their classrooms immediately.

The union’s demands are unrealistic. The union is asking for increases dating back to 2019. The union wants an across-the-board increase in salary for 2019, and 20 percent for every other year (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) to be granted to all categories of teachers\teacher educators for the years 2019-2023.

The union therefore is virtually asking for teachers’ salaries to increase by almost 150%. This would take a trained teacher’s salary to around $450,000 per month.

But the lack of realism does not end with wages. According to a report in Demerara Waves of November 23^rd 2023, the union is also asking for a performance-based incentive of two percent annually of the total teachers’ wage bill for all eligible teachers; a monthly emotional/stress/risk allowance of $5,000, a monthly internet allowance for GY$10,000; GY$10,000 to all teachers who use their motor vehicles, boats and motor cycles to attend workshops, orientation sessions, emergencies at school, to uplift grants, pay sheets and/or are travelling for the conduct of Teaching Practice organized by the Cyril Potter College of Education;  and monthly allowance of GY$7,000 to conduct business on behalf of their institutions.

No wonder the government is not taking the union seriously. Any government which accedes to these demands is opening a Pandora’s Box from which there is no return.

All other public sector workers are going to demand commensurate increases and this will upend the country’s Budget and throw the economy into a whirlwind crisis. The government cannot afford to pay such increases to teachers much less to extend it to others.

Acceding to the demands on the table will also lead others to demand high increases. Your maid in your home may feel entitled to $300,000 per month. And the boy who comes to wash your car may demand $10,000 for the job.

Retroactive increases should be pulled off the table. That ship has sailed a long time ago. If the union was serious about increases for the period 2019 to 2022, it should have called the strike years ago.

It is also unreasonable to demand such high increases for the pandemic years. Economies around the world were in contraction and there is no way that a 20% increase for 2020 and 2021 could be justified.

Last year, the government offered a stingy 6.5% and then claimed that inflation was 2%. Now that is enough to infuriate workers. But as much as teachers and other public sector workers will feel shortchanged by the 6.5%, a 20% increase may be asking too much.

It is normal but not prudent to aim high in your demands and then settle for less. But it does cause problems when you demand 20% and then settle for single-digit figures. This is why it is advisable for unions to be realistic in their demands

The President is asking for patience. But admittedly, the people’s patience has long run out. The job evaluation exercise which is supposed to take place this year should have taken place a long time ago and therefore the people have a right to be impatient with the government’s intransigence when it comes to wage increase.

But teachers must also appreciate that they are likely to be affected by this exercise. By now all untrained teachers should have been sent packing. We cannot be serious about having a world-class education system and still be persisting with untrained teachers in the system. There can be no place for untrained teachers in education.

Even if it means temporarily rehiring retired teachers, this should be done immediately to allow for untrained teachers to immediately exit the system, except for those who are in training. We can no longer afford to have a situation in which persons with 3 CXC are teaching our children.

In is time for the GTU to reassess its demands. And it is high time for those on the picket line to be chanting a realistic percentage increase rather than simply claiming that they want more pay.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

 

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• . Economies around the world, . The job evaluation, Demerara Waves, governments, Practice organized by the Cyril Potter College of Education

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