Teachers’ strike is political because govt’s decisions are political- PNCR Executive Member Gary Best

Last Updated on Wednesday, 7 February 2024, 22:59 by Denis Chabrol

The now three-day old teachers’ strike called by the Guyana Teachers’ Union is “political” as the educators are responding to political decisions by the government for refusing to address their demand for increased salaries and allowances, Executive Member of the People’s National Congress Reform, Retired Rear Admiral Gary Best said Wednesday.

“It is a political issue. The government is a political entity and the people have political representatives so no one is politicising this issue. This issue is already political. The budget is already political. The budget came out of parliament. That is a political matter. This here is a political matter and this is political action,” Dr Best said.

The Education Ministry has deemed the industrial action “unlawful” and has indicated that it was being spearheaded by opposition A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) parliamentarian, Coretta Mc Donald who is also the GTU’s General Secretary.

He joined teachers, parents, political activists and other sympathetic persons in protesting outside the Ministry of Education’s head offices at 21 and 26 Brickdam, Georgetown to demand that the Ministry of Education come to the bargaining table to discuss increases in salaries and allowances. He demanded that the Ministry of Education and the GTU agree to increase teachers’ salaries “now” because there is sufficient money in the GY$1.4 trillion budget as “money is fungible; all we have to do is move it around.”

“I stand with the teachers today and I will continue to stand with them and fight for the right salary, the right increases and fight for justice for them,” he said. He urged government to hold talks with the GTU and ensure there is a better salary package for all teachers.

He raised concern about 60 percent of the 2024 Budget being spent on infrastructure rather than on teachers and public servants. That approach, he argued, means that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration is “uncaring” and keen only on providing money for the “top elite.” He chided President Irfaan Ali for being silent on the teachers strike, saying that is “unpardonable and more akin to a dictatorship.”

Dr Best advocated continued strike action against the government if teachers and public servants do not get a pay hike.

No other senior politician from APNU or AFC was seen on the picket line on Wednesday.

The GTU General Secretary, meanwhile, said union dues would now be paid in person to the union, via Mobile Money Guyana (MMG), Online bank transfers or collected by a teacher in one school or a cluster of schools now that the Ministry of Education has decided to stop deducting the membership fee and remitting it to the union. “We are one, two, three steps ahead of the Ministry of Education and the Government of Guyana and we will not allow them or their dictatorship attitude to deter us from what we’re doing,” she said.

Ms Mc Donald said that while in opposition now Education Minister Priya Manickchand, then Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and then opposition parliamentarian Irfaan Ali had lamented that the “teachers have real issues but our issues are not political”. “Now, they’re saying that our issue is political and it’s politically motivated as, if to say, the teachers who sit in their classrooms, these teachers are all political and they have a political mandate, forgetting that these very teachers have to face the supermarket, minibuses, taxis, pay lesson fees and pay stores to get clothing for their children,” she said. The GTU General Secretary said the union was contemplating legal action.

Ms Mc Donald said the GTU has decided that before there are any talks with government, “there are a couple of actions that they will have to review and have implemented.” When asked by Demerara Waves Online News what would be those, she opted to remain silent.

Physical Education Teacher, Nima Flue-Bess said the Education Ministry’s end to the deduction of union dues “is a form of bullyism to know that we are calling for our rights; we have our needs that must be addressed.” She said the field at St Joseph’s High School was not being cleaned twice yearly and often times she has had to go without sport equipment to teach children.