‘We are not bullies Pres. Ali; all we need is a livable wage’ – GTU President

Mar 05, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – “The union and teachers are not bullies and they are in no way trying to bully the government, they are simply asking that their terms are met at the mediation table before they return to the classroom, said President of the Guyana Teacher’s Union, Dr. Mark Lyte on Sunday during a live stream via the Union’s Facebook Page.

He was at the time responding to remarks made by President Irfaan Ali on Saturday, who accused the teachers of trying to bully the government. Lyte said that, “We are not going back to school unless the government agrees to our terms and this is not bullyism this is standing our ground and this is what unions do. Unions recognise when governments try to take advantage of their members and they stand their ground with their members. Unions hold fast to their position so let me declare clearly the ball is in the government’s court to agree at the mediation table to our conditions for resumption, that is before the mediation panel.” The GTU president reiterated that the Union’s actions were in no way, “bullyism, we are not bullying the government, we are saying these are the conditions under which we will return…,” Lyte said.

During a live broadcast on Saturday, President Ali said that, “We cannot be politically bullied. There is a system, an ongoing process. You cannot return to that ongoing process under duress. If the union is serious about returning to the process, then they will have the teachers back in school and proceed to the process that was underway. The President added that, “This is the point we have been making consistently, that the meetings that were planned must be allowed to continue, and that is where issues relating to the welfare of teachers will continue to be discussed, but those who are aligned with the leadership of the GTU allow political directives to supersede the natural course of things, to influence their behaviour.”

During the live broadcast on Saturday, the President also said according to a DPI bulletin that since assuming office, the government has had more than 25 meetings with the GTU. “In these meetings with the union, 30 out of the 41 requests made by the union was fulfilled. Apart from the 30, 28 additional non-requested benefits were implemented by the government and the Ministry of Education,” he pointed out. Additionally, DPI said last year, the head of state directly engaged with teachers from the 10 administrative regions. This engagement gave teachers the platform to discuss the state of the education system and address challenges faced.

In a statement issued on Thursday last, the Ministry of Education made it clear that a ‘long and settled’ practice of meeting monthly with the GTU has been ongoing since 11th August 2020. The release stated that at these meetings, multiple issues relating to the welfare of teachers and improvements in the administration of the education sector have been addressed, including salary issues. The last of these engagements took place on 31st January 2024, with the next meeting scheduled to take place on 21st February 2024. As a result, the president in his address said that the responsibility is in the hands of the teachers and the GTU.

Lyte on Sunday also debunked claims by President Ali that the union and the Ministry of Education were holding meetings on salary issues, when talks broke down and the teachers proceeded on strike action.

“Let them produce the minutes that are signed by both sides the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers’ Union. Let those minutes come forth and let those minutes say that we have spoken on financial matters, salary matters,” Lyte said. Lyte said that the only way to resolve the matter and bury the issue was to have those minutes produced today that these types of discussions were indeed held. “In order to bury this, let them produce the signed minutes and we have to be careful because they can make-up minutes.”  The GTU President went on to say, “…lies have been peddled about our engagements, and I want to spend some time talking about the engagements with the Ministry of Education…we have shown you very clearly that the engagements with MoE are nothing but statutory meetings which we have committed to based on our multi-year agreement.”

He further explained, “The engagements have dealt with how we can improve policies in the education sector, and the last agenda which we shared on our Facebook Page had nothing to do about salaries. So, I cannot understand why the leader of this country the President would take to his presentation to try to say to teachers, to try to say to the public, that the Ministry of Education was engaging us on financial matters.

These are lies, absolute lies and to hear that different government officials will say this, somebody is giving them a script from which to read.”  “We have been meeting, the President is now saying we met for 25 times, I want to see those 25 times that we met. In fact, we were not meeting every month, we were meeting as the need arises to deal with educational issues,” he added.

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• Bullies, Facebook, GTU, live, President

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