‘We don’t want a confrontation’
President David Granger
President David Granger

– gov’t still working on a solution President Granger says ahead of planned GTU strike

JUST when the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) is spoiling for industrial action over salary increases for teachers, President David Granger is saying there is no need for a confrontation.

As the president was at pains to explain, the financial proposals put forward by his government are enough to bring relief to teachers.

Based on a report from a high-level committee on public education, the Education Ministry, following consultations with the Finance Ministry, allocated $700M to facilitate salary increases for teachers, in addition to $200 million to address de-bunching for the year 2018.

But when Education Minister Nicolette Henry met with the GTU recently on these two critical matters, the proposals were overturned.

On the sideline of a commemorative ceremony for the 1823 Demerara Revolt at the Demerara Revolt Monument on Monday, President Granger told reporters that the Education Minister is working towards agreement.

“We don’t want a confrontation; we don’t want a clash. We value the services of teachers,” he said when approached by the Guyana Chronicle, and posited that while a high-level committee was established to find a solution, that solution has not yet been found, but his government is not giving up.

The high-level committee was put together last November to address salary negotiations and other issues affecting teachers. The matters to be addressed included non-salary issues, allowances, de-bunching and matters highlighted during the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the education sector, in addition to the GTU Multi-Year Agreement.

“We haven’t found a solution,” President Granger said, adding:
“We are continuing to work for a solution; we are not aiming to have a confrontation. “We know that the teachers have some rights, but we know Government also has some obligations.”

Asked whether the government intends to put a new proposal on the table in light of the pending nationwide industrial action, President Granger said the government’s proposals were announced by the Education Minister following meetings with the Finance Minister Winston Jordan. Those proposals, he emphasised, are still under consideration.
The president said the GTU was urged to consider the obligations of the government to other sectors of the economy in making its demands, as he pointed to the $32B which was pumped into the sugar industry and other initiatives taken to solve the problems it inherited from the previous People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Administration.

“I think that some of the demands are justifiable, and we provided the funds, which could, in our estimation, provide relief to the teachers,” President Granger said, adding:
“Don’t forget that over the last three years, the salaries of the lowest paid teachers have increased by 50 per cent, so the teachers weren’t excluded; they weren’t ignored; they weren’t omitted.”

At the commemorative ceremony to mark the 195th Anniversary of the 1823 Demerara Revolt, Sports and Cultural Activist Aaron Blackman used the opportunity to make a public appeal.

“I pray earnestly that the Guyana Teachers’ Union and the Ministry of Education can humbly, cooperatively and sensibly work to avert a strike that can seriously harm our national development programme for a very long time,” Blackman pleaded.

GTU President Mark Lyte, following the last meeting with the Education Ministry, told reporters that its proposed salary increases for teachers are extremely important, stressing that teachers cannot survive on the salary they are presently receiving.

The GTU has proposed an across-the-board increase in salary of 40% for 2016; 45% in 2017; and 50% in 2018, 2019 and 2020 be granted to all categories of teachers and teacher educators for the years 2016-2020.

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