Teachers on strike yesterday protested in front of the Regional Democratic Council of Region Six located in Vryman’s Erven, New Amsterdam as they continue their call for collective bargaining between the Guyana Teachers’ Union and the Ministry of Education.
On Monday, a public notice signed by the permanent secretaries of the ministries of education and local government said that they had received from the 11 education districts a
list of teachers who have not reported for duty at their assigned schools and who have not received the necessary leave approval and/or permission during the school week ending February 9th 2024. They said that the strikers would have pay deducted from their March salaries.
Mehalai McAlmont, General Council Representative for the Guyana Teachers’ Union New Amsterdam Branch yesterday said, that they will continue to protest as they will not be intimidated.
She said that they decided to protest in front of the regional administration after they were threatened that their salaries would be cut for striking. “This (RDC) is where we get our salaries from and so we come here to register our disgust. It is our constitutional right to hold a protest action, to hold strike action.”
According to McAlmont, they have been asking to meet with President Irfaan Ali and the Ministry of Education “for the last three years, we didn’t just wake up today or last week and decide that we want to strike after three years of no collective bargaining we decided that we have to take it to the streets so that our voices can be heard.”
She added, “We do not want impositions, we do not want the government of this country to impose on us what they want us to get. We understand our value and we understand our worth as teachers and so we are asking for us to be a part of the decision making and the only way we can be a part of the decision making is through collective bargaining.”
Mc Almont noted that for the New Amsterdam area out of 536 teachers currently 375 teachers are on strike.
Meanwhile, Imran Ali, GTU’s General Council Representative for the Central Corentyne Area, yesterday said that he wished to make it clear that the protest is not political as is being claimed by the government. “We want to dispel the narrative that the government is pushing that this strike is politically ….incited, that is quite not so.”
According to Ali, the evidence is that teachers are coming out in their numbers and that it speaks to the diversity of the teaching profession. “We are dissatisfied with our salaries, we’re dissatisfied in the way in which government is handling its business and we are disgruntled and we are very peeved at the fact that they have not seen the need for collective bargaining.”
Ali said, that parents are also “disgusted” currently as they are wondering when will the matter be dealt with so that teachers can get back into the classrooms.
