Following further fallout with the University of Guyana administration, the UG Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the UG Workers’ Union (UGWU) will stage a three-day strike, which will see the delay of UG’s new semester.
The industrial action comes after demands issued by the unions were not met positively by the administration.
According to a joint letter from UGSSA President Mellissa Ifill and UGWU President Bruce Haynes, the strike will commence on Monday January 26 and will take the form of a sit-in. This form of action will see the employees occupying their work spaces but the non-performance of duties. Vice-Chancellor Jacob Opadeyi has already been notified, the unions’ representatives further said.
Though the representatives noted that the student body will be affected by the decision for industrial action, they emphasised that it is a necessary one.
“We are aware of the possible implications of our actions on our students and the university as a whole. Our aim is not to make the students or the university suffer… Please help our students to understand that we are simply insisting on better standards and conditions at the university which will be beneficial to them as well,” the letter said.
Earlier this week the two unions met for an emergency meeting to decide on a way forward and had since then threatened industrial action if their demands were not met. These demands included a 60% increase in salaries, the immediate withdrawal of a new workload policy being foisted upon them by Opadeyi, and the recognition of the UGSSA as an official union.
“We have been suffering for a long time from starvation wages and an extremely poor and oftentimes dangerous working environment. Notwithstanding the fact that we are already grossly underpaid for the work we already do, we are now experiencing a dictatorial administration that seeks to impose even more work and duties upon us,” Ifill and Haynes wrote.
The united front had given the administration up to January 22 to respond positively to their demands.
Meanwhile, the UG Students’ Society (UGSS) will also be staging its own form of action on Monday.
According to UGSS President Joshua Griffith, a rally is planned for 4 pm on Monday at the Education Lecture Theatre (ELT) tarmac and all students are urged to assemble and support.
“The situation at the University of Guyana is cause for alarm,” Griffith wrote in a UG students’ Facebook group. He continued, “Coming at a time when students have been made to pay increased tuition fees and have seen little to no improvements, currently staff members have made it clear to the university’s administration their intent to take industrial action and students once again, will inevitably bear the brunt of the consequences if these oppressed staff members do not receive justice; we need the student body to rally with us.”
Further, he said, the UGSS had met the unions and was fully aware of the planned sit-in. He explained that the UGSS’s executive body also met and will meet again on Monday to discuss a plan of action in the light of recent developments.
“We’re in support of increased salaries. However, we’re equally in support of improved performance from the staff,” Griffith said. He noted that there are still outstanding grades across many of the university’s programme, a setback which he said is of concern to the entire student population.
Griffith went on to say that despite UGSS’s support of the staff, it still had some concerns over some of their demands. For example, he said, the 60% increase proposed by the staff was a bit unsettling. “It’s a bit rash and we’re wondering who’s going to fund this increase,” he said. He added that the administration must find the money from somewhere and it will most likely see a further hike in the tuition fees. When claims that UG had garnered $274 million from last year’s tuition increase were pointed out to him, Griffith noted that facilities fees had also seen a hike last year. He emphasised that salary increases cannot be paid from the facilities fees and the facilities fees should instead be used for upgrading the university’s services.
Griffith said that if the administration was not willing to meet the unions’ demands it was unclear how long the industrial action would continue.
Since 2012, wage negotiations between the academic staff and the administration had been ongoing, leading to days of strike by lecturers and students alike before terms for resumption were brokered.
