–following threat of industrial action

FOLLOWING a decision by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) to carry out a two-day strike action next week, President David Granger has intervened and plans to meet with union representatives early next week.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon who met with union executives on Friday said that the meeting between the GTU and Minister of Education Nicolette Henry on Thursday was never intended to be the final position of the administration, but an interim arrangement.
Minister Harmon in response alluded to his most recent pronouncement on the matter at his post-Cabinet press briefing, where he indicated that the issues regarding increased salaries for teachers were being considered by Government in the form of a multi-year proposal submitted by the GTU.

To this end, he said President David Granger has expressed concern about the reports regarding the outcome of the meeting between the union and the ministry and has signalled his willingness to meet with the union on Monday October 30, to discuss all matters of concern to the union.
The GTU has accepted the offer by the President and iterated that it is committed to the process of Collective Bargaining and that it would be drawing these developments to the attention of its members.

On Thursday, the GTU said it was rounding up teachers across the country to join it in strike action next week Thursday and Friday, since a meeting with the education minister had failed to address teachers’ burning issues.
The meeting with Minister Henry and other officials reportedly had lasted under 10 minutes when the GTU team walked out after the minister failed to address the issue placed before her, including the multi-year proposal.
The GTU’s General-Secretary, Coretta McDonald, told the 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 had 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 had thrust 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.