Opposition openly endorses teachers’ strike, hints at worsening industrial unrest

Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 February 2024, 15:20 by Denis Chabrol

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton on Tuesday openly backed the now 22-day old strike by teachers, saying it has virtually crippled several businesses and warned that the industrial unrest could spread to the public service.

“It is now obvious that this impasse will continue and as such we have chosen to make this statement both to underscore our support for the teachers and call the PPP/C (People’s Progressive Party Civic) government to task for its hard and unconscionable stance in not engaging with the teachers through their union for the greater good,” he said in an address.

Mr Norton said teachers, transportation workers, vendors and children were all being adversely affected by the strike that was called on February 5, 2024 but so far government has refused to be pressured into collective bargaining with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) for increased salaries and allowances.

Though the number of striking teachers on the picket line has dwindled, many parents are refusing to send their children to school because few educators are in the classroom or are present but not teaching.

While the government has from the inception stamped the strike as unlawful and politically driven, the Opposition Leader on Tuesday said A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) had limited its public positions on the matter because it did not want the issue to be caught up in “partisan political conjecture.” The picketing teachers had attracted open solidarity from several well-known APNU/People’s National Congress Reform members including Simona Broomes, Dr Gary Best, Ms Maliza Walton-Desir and  Mr Hamilton Green. He also said the opposition’s previous stance should not be interpreted as a lack of concern or unwillingness to engage government or address the issue comprehensively.

Mr Norton hinted that the industrial climate could deteriorate if public servants join the teachers in solidarity for a living wage in a country where the bulk of the GY$1.2 trillion national budget has been allocated to infrastructural development. “Government should note that by their actions they are creating the conditions for all public servants to consider whether they too should come out on the picket line, because
as the cost-of-living skyrockets wages have not kept up,” he said. The GPSU’s executive council is expected to meet again in the coming days to decide on a deadline to give government to hold collective bargaining before calling out workers on industrial action.

Calling for teachers to be adequately paid and operate in a comfortable student and teacher friendly atmosphere, he said APNU+AFC had hoped that good sense would have prevailed and that the government would have at least engaged the GTU to bring the matter “to some level of resolution.” Rather than being perceived as weak if it goes into pay talks, the Opposition Leader said “this is not a time for one upmanship.” “Our children should not be held hostage to political brinkmanship. The longer this strike persists, the greater the harm inflicted upon the most vulnerable members of our society,” he said.

Mr Norton once again promised that if elected in general elections to be held in November, 2025, an APNU+AFC administration would use the oil revenues to “prioritize the well-being of our teachers and all public servants.” “We will ensure that the benefits of our nation’s resources meet the needs of all our public servants and of all Guyanese, rather than accruing solely to the elite, families, friend and favorites, of the chosen few.

He said there is sufficient money to pay teachers and all public servants.  “The suggestion that the cost of raising salaries for teachers cannot be considered is untenable.”

The GTU has since obtained temporary High Court orders blocking the Guyana government from deducting monies from the salaries of striking teachers and stopping the automatic deduction of union dues because the strike was deemed “unlawful” and there had been threats and racist appeals against teachers who chose to work.