General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) Coretta McDonald said the union is not prepared for any idle talks with the government, but noted that the administration must come to the table with a plan that will appease striking teachers countrywide.
Into their second week of industrial action, teachers across the country are maintaining their “ slippers on the ground” mantra, sending a stern message to the PPP Government that there is no backing down until their demands are met.
The GTU official made a recent appearance on the online programme Politics 101 with Dr David Hinds. She said the strike action will continue into the new week, should the government fail to answer the call for collective bargaining.
The strike, which commenced last Monday, is in the last of a planned two-week exercise. However, McDonald said the action will be extended if no talks are had.
She said the union was hoping the government would have been “sensible enough” to not even allow the strike action to take place.
“The dishonesty in all of this is massive when it comes to the PPP Administration because it is they that spoke about democracy and they were lambasting the coalition to return to collective bargaining. Now they themselves in the seat of government have a different approach,” she stated.
McDonald said she hopes good sense will prevail on the part of the government.
“We are ready to talk with them if they are ready to go to arbitration, we are ready for that, if they are ready for conciliation, we are ready for the talks. But let me say to them, we are not getting into idle talks, we are going to get involved in talks that will bring out positive and tangible benefits, which means, these talks, while we are having them, we will have to put timeliness to these talks.”
According to her, the government must come to the table with a proposal on how it plans to address the cries of teachers including reinstating the deduction of dues to the union. The government must also submit numbers and the finances, she relayed.
Government has already made good on its threat to cut the salaries of teachers. In a circular Monday, the education ministry said teachers’ salaries will be cut according to the number of days absent from the classroom.
She pointed out the disrespect meted out to teachers, comparing the response by government to the plight of the educators to that of sugar workers who would often down tools.
“It is ok when GAWU strikes. We don’t hear about cutting pay, we hear from the president that the government will be meeting with them. You are meeting with them, but maybe the GTU got leper around there so you can’t meet with them. But whether you like it or not, they will have to meet with us,” she promised.
And despite the “vindictiveness” of the government, the union leader said GTU has been garnering full support from corporate Guyana, and overseas based Guyanese, including former teachers.
“If they think they are punishing us, think again. You are going to be punished and we are going to see the backs of the PPP pretty soon if they do not change their attitude.”
Outlining the course of action taken by the union since 2020 to ensure collective bargaining, McDonald explained that the GTU had met with the education minister in August 2020 and submitted a copy of the proposal for the multiyear agreement. A copy of that proposal was also sent to the Chief Labor Officer.
With no proper responses from either ministry, the union also wrote the president, who said in a later response that the matter would be addressed.
When there was no redress from the president, another letter was sent to him in 2023 asking for his intervention. It was then that the president established a three- man committee including Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira, then Minister of Public Service Sonia Parag and Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.
After a number of postponed meetings and failed talks with that committee, the GTU reached out to the labour ministry informing that all avenues for talks had been exhausted, requesting that the ministry intervene. However, the union did not receive any satisfaction from the ministry. When the union indicated that it was taking its teachers to the streets, the labor ministry said the strike action would be illegal since talks between the union and education ministry were not broken down.
“Rather than labouring for workers in this country, he (Minister of Labor Joseph Hamilton) sets out to suppress and oppress workers. So rather than talking to us, the minister go out there on television to tell us the strike is illegal and teachers will be penalised and what the government will do and will not do.
Our members have made it clear, you do what you have to do, because we are doing what we have to do. So that’s where we ended up. When all possible avenues have been exhausted, that is where we ended up and so our teachers are out in their numbers all across this country,” McDonald said. (Politics 101)
