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‘You are the bully, not the union’ – striking teachers tell Govt.
Kaieteur News – Teachers on the protest line on Monday of the nationwide teachers strike accused the Government of bullying and intimidation moments after the Ministry of Education issued a statement informing them that their salaries will be deducted for unauthorised absence from the classroom.
A teacher braved the heat to join the call for collective bargaining for higher salaries (Travis Chase photo)
Another teacher on the protest line reminded that the strike is economical and not political (Travis Chase photo)
For the past six working days, teachers across the country have been on strike calling the government to engage the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) in negotiations for higher salaries. Parbattie Ramjohn told Kaieteur News “Since the strike started, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour have been threatening teachers …We said it before and we will say it again. The Union has not forced and intimidated any of us to join the strike or protest. As you can see not everyone is on strike and the union is not threatening and forcing anyone.”
The teacher said that she decided to join the crowd in front the Region Three Education Office on Monday, after the Education Ministry issued a statement informing striking teachers that their salaries will be deducted for unauthorised absence from the classroom. “We can’t afford to give in to what the Government is saying and doing because at the end of the day, this is about our bread and butter not politics. Many teachers just want a proper pay package,” she stated.
Another teacher noted that the Ministry of Education (MOE) has been calling around and collecting the names of the teachers who are absent from work since Monday. “The Ministry of Education has been using this as an intimidatory tactic as a means of scaring teachers into going work. They say that the strike is illegal when the GTU has attempted to engage them on the issue of salary negotiations for four years now to no avail,” the teacher added. The teacher said that teachers are being told things like “the Ministry is looking into you.”
“They are only making matters worse by making us the enemy. All teachers want is to be paid properly many of the other changes in the system are good but what we need more than that is higher salaries.” “Many of us give our lives to this profession and all we are asking is to be paid decent enough salaries to live on,” Ms. Gillian Anderson told this publication.
President of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), Mark Lyte said that the Government’s response has only served to provoke teachers to engage in further industrial action. “We have seen the list before and that list that they put out does not address the salary concerns of teachers so to repeat the list wasn’t making any point,” Lyte said in response to claims by the Ministry of Education that the government has been working to incrementally address issues that teachers face.
Further, Lyte said it was highly offensive for President Irfaan Ali to call on teachers to have a conscience and reflect on all the good that his government has done to improve their working conditions over the weekend. “To give the impression that the teachers are unconscionable, that’s an unreasonable position to actually say that to our teachers in this country because they are the ones who are feeling it in the market place and we don’t believe to make such a statement is really helping the cause. It is only further aggravating teachers to come out and demonstrate,” he said.
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