Dear Editor,
The word of Corretta McDonald, the General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) – in November 2015, she updated the nation to the fact that the agreement arrived at with the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government will be coming to an end in December 2015 and there is a need for a new agreement with the People’s National Congress (PNC)-led Granger Government. Since then, she and the GTU leadership have failed to secure a new agreement from the Granger Administration.
There is a perception that the leadership of the GTU is dominated by PNC supporters and followers. By extension, this translates to the school of thought that these negotiations since November 2015 between the leadership of the GTU and this PNC-led Granger Government amounts to the PNC-led Government negotiating with itself. Is this why after three years, the GTU leadership has failed to secure a collective bargaining agreement and resolve the de-bunching issue?
The last time the GTU did any serious industrial action in defence of the teachers’ cause was in April 2015 under the previous PPP Government and I welcome there belated call for industrial action in the pre-September 2018 school term; something must give – teachers cannot live on hot air. Not once over the last three years under this PNC-led Government, has the GTU leveraged industrial action as a tool to take the teachers any closer to the “good life” although it has been treated much worst in the three years after May 2015 compared to the three years before May 2015.
When one reflects on the actions of the GTU leadership today, it exposes how these actions have played a major role in the destruction of the economic well-being of teachers, just like they did in the late 1970s when the then Burnham Government stifled the voice of teachers too.
Since April 6, 2018, the Cabinet of Guyana was given the report from the High-Level Task Force that was set up by the Government to charter a course on the teachers’ wages and benefits issues. It has been four months and President Granger continues to give lip service to the burning issues affecting teachers. Yet this same President and his Government can easily find GY$1 billion and more to travel around the world on mostly international jaunts. That same billion can increase every teacher’s salary by GY$7900 per month.
Guyana’s future is intertwined with the quality of our teaching profession. Is the leadership of the GTU under some sort of political injunction to serve the PNC more than it should serve the teachers of Guyana? The time is now for the GTU to act and these calls for industrial actions from the ordinary teachers must be supported as the Christmas term (September to December) approaches. It is time for the GTU leadership to decide who is more important, those 12 or so political masters at Congress Place or the 9000 teachers in the official system. Corretta McDonald must act!
Regards,
Sasenarine Singh
