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‘Cut we pay, we gon keep lessons, sell juice and mek money’ – striking teachers tell Govt
By Shervin Belgrave
Region 3 teachers protesting in front of the Department of Education on Wednesday.
Kaieteur News – Teachers on the picket line for better wages on Wednesday said that possible salary cuts will not deter them from standing up for their rights.
“We gon keep lessons, we gon go and do home school in the evenings and mek back the money”, one of them chanted as scores of teachers protested in front of the Ministry of Labour on Brickdam, Georgetown.
Led by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), teachers across the county continued their strike/protest for higher salaries. Wednesday was day eight of their countrywide effort to bring the government to the bargaining table.
Teachers continued protest in Port Kaituma, North West District, Region One
Despite guarantees from Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo that protesting teachers will not be victimised; the government has moved to deduct money from their salaries for the days they have been on the picket line. Faced with salary cuts the teachers on Wednesday said they will not back down. “We gone tek the punch, we gon tek the slaps and everything, because when we win everybody gon win”, they said.
The teachers made it clear that they are not bothered by the salary cuts because they can find other ways to make back the lost money. “We are creative people, we gon do things in we house and sell,” they said before adding: “we gon do fish fries, we gon mek juice and sell things (at) home, people always willing to support teachers. We nah gon fall this is not the first and it won’t be our last. We standing up for our rights.”
According to the teachers, they are going to continue their industrial action until the government agrees to meet with them because they “fed-up” of being broke. “We expenses higher than we income, We get pay today and we bruk since yesterday,” one of them said while another added, “we owe Singers, we owe Courts, we owe the credit union, we owe everybody.”
Meanwhile, the GTU has filed a court case against the government on Tuesday over the salary deductions and its move to stop deducting the $700 union dues from teachers’ pay. GTU’s General Secretary, Coretta McDonald said, “We are very hopeful that the courts will pronounce in our favour especially with regards to the withdrawals of the dues, not deducting the dues from teachers’ salaries.” As it relates to cutting teachers salary for striking/protesting, McDonald added: “It is in the law that if you don’t work then you can’t get pay but what we have looked at in previous years is that the GTU and its members would withdraw their services from the classrooms, from the education sector and that government the APNU+AFC did not take out one cent from a teacher’s salary even though teachers were out for nine days.”
Teachers picketing in front of the Ministry of Labour on Wednesday.
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