THE Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) is currently galvanising teachers across the country to join it in strike actions next week, following what it said was an unfruitful meeting with the Ministry of Education on Thursday.

The meeting with Education Minister, Nicolette Henry, and other officials reportedly lasted under 10 minutes when the GTU team, headed by president Mark Lyte, walked out after the minister failed to address the issues placed before her, including the multi-year proposal.

GTU General Secretary Coretta McDonald told Guyana Chronicle on Thursday that the GTU team was invited to the meeting with the education minister and was expecting some positive word on the way forward regarding the increase of salaries for teachers.
She said the minister instead began a power point presentation on something off topic.
“We turned up at the meeting that we were invited to and we wanted to hear about the minister’s counter proposal to our salary proposal. Instead, the minister had a power point presentation to deliver on non-salary issues,” she said.
According to McDonald, the minister appeared unaware of the issue and began talking about things unrelated to the subject matter.
Among those were her complaints that several regions failed to provide the information of upgraded teachers. The GTU immediately objected to the discussion, reminding the minister what the team was really there to address.
McDonald said the GTU team had to leave, especially since the minister thrusted upon the members a proposal for teachers similar to what government announced last week for public servants.

She said GTU officials informed the minister that they would be willing to have another meeting when government gets the numbers right.
Teachers, she said, will be embarking on industrial actions next Thursday and Friday.
Meanwhile, in a Facebook post, the Ministry of Education said that its meeting with the Guyana Teachers Union was intended to discuss a number of issues that have been highlighted by the union.
Chief among the issues, the ministry said, was the proposed multi-year agreement (2016 to 2020).

“The proposal addresses both financial and non-financial matters. The President of the GTU, Mr. Mark Lyte said that based on the last meeting that was held with the Ministry in August 2017, the union would have communicated that it has no problem with the manner in which the Ministry will address the non-financial issues,” the ministry said.
According to the post, Lyte stated that the GTU is very concerned about the financial aspect of the proposal regarding salary increases, debunching, allowances and duty-free concessions.

It was at this point that Education Minister Nicolette Henry informed the GTU representatives that government can only offer wage increases in keeping with those offered to public servants.
The ministry said GTU was dissatisfied with the response and decided that the meeting should not continue and together left the boardroom.
“Following the meeting, Minister Henry reiterated that at this point in time, the Government of Guyana is proposing to all of its public servants including teachers, increases which have been made public,” the ministry said.

Last Thursday, the GTU had threatened industrial action, contending that its regular submission of issues to government was falling on deaf ears. These issues include the debunching payments, outstanding since 2006, the $40 million housing project in the pipeline since 2006 and more recently, the salary proposal presented to the Ministry of Education.