Dear Editor,
Following repeated insinuations of illegality and or impropriety from the University of Guyana’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Ivelaw Griffith and more recently the General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress Mr. Lincoln Lewis on the part of the University of Guyana’s Unions and more specifically the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) we, as current and past Chairs of the UGSSA wish to state the following:
1. It is inaccurate that the UGSSA is not certified by the Trades Union Recognition and Certification Board. Please see attached the certificate of recognition to silence this false claim. Editor’s note: Certificate was attached).
2. We appreciate the Vice-Chancellor’s interest in our affairs and wish to inform him that we have attempted to hold regular elections since the Union’s resuscitation in 2011. With regard to our finances, the UG Unions are far from wealthy with UGSSA’s individual dues amounting to $500 monthly. This princely sum of $500 was only raised from $200 in 2016. Our Executives receive no remuneration from the Union. The Union’s financial records have always been and remain open for scrutiny.
3. We are aware that senior university officials were showing a list purporting to be of lecturers who had submitted late grades to persons attending various cocktail parties, receptions and dinners in the city. The names of Union leaders were said to be on that list. We categorically deny any guilt in this regard and in fact have publicly called on faculty to fulfill their responsibilities to our students. We have in our possession the final list of lecturers who were said to have late grades and scripts in 2017, and who would have been denied a salary increase. This list was given to us by the UG administration. There are no Union leaders on that list. We trust that this clarification will lead to the cessation of these erroneous and defamatory statements and insinuations.
4. Further, we wish to inform the public that we have consistently asked the University’s administration (since 2016) to provide a detailed analysis of the late grades problem, since we are convinced that there has been considerable improvement on the part of lecturers in the timeliness with which they mark and submit their grades. We believe that an analysis would reveal exactly where the problems lie in the University’s grade approval system. After almost three years of requesting this information privately, we now call publicly on the administration to provide the information. It is unfair and unjust to the University’s lecturers for them to be blamed for a problem that most likely can be traced to the University’s own systems.
5. High on the Unions’ agenda is arriving at a Collective Labour Agreement with the UG’s Administration. The UGWU head Mr. Bruce Haynes had long prepared an initial draft of a CLA which was shared with the administration. Two years ago, the Unions requested information from the UG Administration as part of the preparatory process for a Collective Labour Agreement. To date the required information has not been shared with the Unions.
6. We have the evidence of our long and protracted struggle to share staff concerns with the administration and the Council and have them taken seriously. Since November 2016 we sent over 100 letters and emails as part of our attempt to negotiate the Collective Labour Agreement, wages and salaries and other benefits; and also to address longstanding issues around the pension scheme, as well as health and safety on Turkeyen campus. Over the same period, we attended over 40 meetings with the administration and other organizations in an attempt to deal with the issues affecting staff. Our attempts to secure answers to questions and to move forward with solutions were largely frustrated. For one of the most pressing problems on campus – health and safety – we were forced to call in the Department of Labour ourselves, so that they could conduct a long-overdue health and safety audit of Turkeyen Campus. The lengthy and damning report on that audit was finally obtained by the Unions in March 2019.
7. Finally, it is insulting that Mr. Lewis interprets the Unions’ just and protracted fight for good governance at the University as engineered and/or instigated by Mr. Freddie Kissoon. We wish to advise Mr. Lewis that we will not tolerate him addressing the UG Unions in a patronising or dismissive manner and we will not simply stand by and allow him to speak for us in public. We are well aware of the situation we are in and will decide how we wish to deal with it. We hope that the General Secretary will be able to refrain from further reference to the University Unions and our affairs in his personal public correspondence with Mr. Kissoon. If there is a need to refer to us, we hope that he will contact us before writing.
Yours faithfully,
Jewel Thomas (Dr) &
Mellissa Ifill (Dr)
Current and
Immediate
Past Chairpersons – UGSSA
