Berbice teachers yesterday took to the streets throughout the region in support of the GTU strike calling for the Ministry of Education to head back to the bargaining table with the union to work out an option for increased salaries for educators.
Teachers from the Canje – Bohemia and New Amsterdam districts yesterday held a demonstration outside of the region’s education department located in New Amsterdam. Corentyne teachers held a demonstration in Rose Hall Town.
According to information gathered, from 205 teachers within the Canje district, 153 supported the strike signaling a 74.6% turnout. Stabroek News was told that 25.4% or 52 teachers from the area turned out to work.
Of 536 teachers in the New Amsterdam district, 345 supported the strike which is 64.4%. In that district 191 turned out to work.
One of the key demands by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) is for the government to engage it in free collective bargaining for the full range of benefits that should be available to educators.
Tamesh Mohabir, attached to the New Amsterdam Multilateral Secondary School, told Stabroek News that he decided to support the union and his colleagues because “we feel there is a need for us to return to collective bargaining whereby both sides put their proposal on the table and then they negotiate to come up with something tangible for the teachers.”
Mohabir said that while there are “quite a few things being done for the betterment of the education sector a lot more needs to be done especially in the areas of salary increases and so on.”
From a teacher’s perspective, he said that some of the immediate needs of teachers in addition to a salary increase is a “dire need” for allowances.
“Especially like transportation allowances because for many teachers we don’t have our vehicles and a significant portion of our salary goes towards transportation, if we could have certain allowances, transportation allowances, maybe meal allowance those sort of things to help us make our life easy”, he said.
Mohabir stressed that he was hopeful that the strike action would push the Ministry of Education to place more interest in returning to the drawing board and “follow the laws of trade union and collective bargaining and sort out all the issues that we are here contesting today.”
Chants
With chants calling on the Ministry of Education to pledge a 50% increase and “we want oil money” the teachers in New Amsterdam yesterday braved drizzles to let their voices be heard.
GTU representative and teacher attached to the Sheet Anchor Primary School, Andrew Dhanraj said that they are fighting for “what is called a bread and butter situation.”
Stressing that the strike action has nothing to do with politics, Dhanraj said, “This is a simple situation where we are demanding more.”
He said, “As you know police would have received, nurses would have received but basically a 6.5 (percent) was given to teachers, a 6.5 was imposed on teachers, in 2021 we had a 7%, 2022 we had an 8%, and in 2023 we got a 6.5%, in the fastest growing economy of the world, the Dubai of the Caribbean you are telling me educators that make every other profession possible, even the president, even the minister, we have to be out here demanding what is rightfully ours.”
Pointing out that the union and the ministry met last week, Dhanraj said, “We are meeting to negotiate non-salary benefits and as educators, we cannot take non-salary benefits to the market.”
He said that often as soon as there is an increase in public servants’ salary there is always a “rise in the market.”
Furthermore, Dhanraj said that educators are also looking for an increase in their clothing allowance which is currently at $8,000 per year. “Let us have a substantial clothing allowance because $8,000 cannot purchase nothing properly for a teacher and it’s for the entire year.”
Another Berbice educator, Seon Bristol, said that he decided to take part in yesterday’s strike action and protest as teachers are in desperate need of a pay increase. “Most of the issues they are dealing with is non salary and soon as there is a raise in salary there is a raise in commercial goods in the market so there is nothing much you can see with your salary so this is why we are out in the streets.”
Stressing the importance of teachers, Bristol said, that teachers “need to be satisfied.”
Teachers on the protest line yesterday pledged that if their demands are not met then they will continue to strike throughout the week.
Meanwhile, efforts to ascertain from the regional administration what systems were put in place to manage classrooms yesterday proved futile as the officials all remained silent on the matter.
