As public sector teachers across the country stand up and take decisive actions in advancing their call for a just pay rise and other improvements in conditions of work, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) extends its full and unstinted support and solidarity. The FITUG has been closely following the unfolding developments regarding the Government’s attitude towards the demands of the teachers and their union – the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU). For us it is indeed dismaying to see our teachers, who play no small role in moulding the nation, being treated with such disdain and, seeming, unconcern of their plight. The take-it-or-leave-it attitude adopted by the Administration in spite of the GTU’s justifications, in our view, has no place in our contemporary industrial setting.
The FITUG recognizes that the teachers have been more than co-operative and sought to work together with the Administration to meaningfully reach an agreement. We have noted that they fully participated in the work of the joint taskforce convened by His Excellency President David Granger. As we saw from reports in the media, undoubtedly in the spirit of good-faith discussions, the Union would have rationally considered the Administration’s positions and explanations and accordingly re-looked at their proposals. For us it is disappointing that in spite of taskforce’s work, which benefitted from the presence of several high-ranking Government officials, the Administration it appears has simply chosen to ignore several of the recommendations that were embraced. This for us is not a positive development and serves, in our view, to undermine the Government’s credibility.
The explanation that Government cannot afford to meet the proposals advanced can have little acceptance when an account is taken of the grandiose wastage and incomprehensible extravagance of the Administration. We need not remind of the billion dollar travel budgets; the ‘greening’ of several Government buildings; the sole sourcing of drugs at prices far above what normally obtains; the rental of a drug bond to store hardly anything; among other things. While the teachers are denied their due lot, we cannot forget the 50 per cent salary hike the Cabinet gave itself and in addition to the significant increase in the benefits the Ministerial class now enjoys. And then more recently the damages that were reportedly sustained to several state vehicles during a reception held at the Georgetown Club apart from the sumptuous, extravagant foods that were reportedly served.
We were also upset to learn that attempts are afoot to intimidate and scare teachers away from heeding the legitimate call by their Union. This for us is a very disturbing development. We were equally dismayed to see Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Keith Scott’s letter to the GTU which charged that the Union’s strike call was illegal. We wish to remind the Minister that workers have an inalienable constitutional right to strike and his seeming efforts to deny the workers that right cannot be tolerated nor condoned. We were also disappointed to see the Ministers of Social Protection and also the Chief Labour Officer comprising the Government’s delegation in engaging the Union. The impartiality expected of the Ministry of Social Protection which is now conciliating the dispute has been sorely undermined by the presence of these high-ranking officials at the table on the Government’s behalf.
This disrespect meted out to the teachers, unfortunately, is characteristic of the Administration’s concern for the country’s working-people. We have seen during the stint of the Coalition Government the downgrading of the Ministry of Labour to a mere Department. We cannot also fail to note the imposition of pay rises in the public sector notwithstanding its manifesto commitment to engage in Collective Bargaining. Then, neither can we forget the withholding of half severance pay to sugar workers who were dismissed following the closure of estates, such an act which is illegal in the eyes of the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act. And if those were not enough, salt was rubbed into the wound when VAT was imposed on electricity and water; the reduction in the number of VAT exempted and zero-rated items which affected medical supplies and services and treatments, among others; the introduction of an environmental tax; increased the costs of passports; introduced fees for TIN certificates as well as massively increased the costs for a number of licenses, fees and penalties.
As the teachers press their demand we cannot fail to forget that President David Granger, as Opposition Leader, had promised that teachers would be the highest paid. Today, the commitment, like many others, has simply been forgotten, and the teachers, like all workers, are reminded that it is only through united and dedicated struggles that we can win our just demands. The FITUG has also recognized that persons from some quarters have pointed to what they deem as the exorbitance of the demands put forward by teachers but those persons, from their ivory towers, are alien to the struggles the working-people of Guyana must face on a day-to-day basis. The Government cannot be simply turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the daily struggles our workers face in putting meals on their tables; or to pay their bills, and to make ends meet with ever rising cost-of-living. We urge the Administration, if it is serious about giving all Guyanese a ‘Good Life’ to favourably consider the demands of the teachers and to engage the workers movement as a whole to see what relief it can bring to the Guyanese working-people as they are being slowly choked by the burdens of life.
