Teachers’ Union executive divided over pay hike agreement: McDonald openly attacks Lyte

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 August 2024, 21:10 by Writer

Lyte is “in consort with government” – McDonald
“I didn’t see us getting anything more” – Lyte

Deep cracks emerged in the executive of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) on Wednesday over that bargaining agent’s signing of a multi-year salary and non-salary agreement with the Ministry of Education.

While the agreement was signed on behalf of the GTU by its President Dr Mark Lyte and second Vice President Julian Cambridge, General Secretary Coretta McDonald and three other union executives distanced themselves from the accord.

“The items that were looked at, none of them were in favour of the GTU,” she said on a Facebook Live session whose participants also included Vanessa Kissoon. Ms McDonald openly castigated Dr Lyte as well as a number of other officers who supported the signing of the agreement earlier Wednesday. “This agreement was not properly fleshed out and we can safely say that the President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, Mr Mark Lyte; the second Vice President Mr Julian Cambridge and maybe a few of the other officers – maybe two or three of the other officers, they are in consort with the government of Guyana to continue to punish teachers,” she said.

Reacting moments later, Dr Lyte told Demerara Waves Online News: “Absolute rubbish! Absolute rubbish! How would you be in consort with the government, take them to the court, fight them tooth and nail all these months and be in consort with government? That’s absolute nonsense!”

Ms McDonald accused Dr Lyte of deceiving members of the GTU’s General Council into believing that the non-salary benefits were in their favour, resulting in many of them voting to accept the “package”. “As a man of integrity, a man who calls himself a Pastor; all he did was to deceive the teachers just like how he deceived the officers this (Wednesday) morning,” she said. She said the union President informed officers that they were going to the Ministry of Education to continue their meeting but were told “at a point” that they were going to sign. She said the signature page did not include the name of the General Secretary which suggested that everything was “prearranged”.

However, the GTU President said that the public was being misled and not told that a decision by the union’s General Council could only be overturned by a special conference of the membership. “I did not sign an agreement without ensuring that the Constitution was respected. The fact that the members of General Council accepted the offer we got on the document, that was enough for me to say ‘yes, let’s sign'”, he said. He said as far as he was aware, no teacher wrote asking for a special conference.

Ms McDonald said that instead of the GY$500 marking fee for each School Based Assessment per child, the union had demanded GY$1,500 with the expectation of GY$1,200 or even GY$800. She said the GTU asked for 300 duty free concessions but the government gave 150; GY$40,000 clothing allowance rather than the government’s GY$15,000. Ms McDonald pointed out that students get a uniform grant of GY$45,000.

Asked whether he believed that union negotiators could have gotten more but gave in too early, Dr Lyte said “you had to be in the room” during the negotiations to understand that the government was not giving much. “The government wasn’t shifting on most of the things that we requested so I can’t speak for future but from where I sat, I didn’t see us getting anything more,” he said. He said “I didn’t give in too early. I just followed the instructions of General Council.”

He appealed to teachers to examine the agreement themselves as “all teachers will benefit” rather than listen to the voices of dissenting factions. He said he entered the GTU’s fight for better wages wholeheartedly and he would continue to have the teachers’ welfare at heart.

Preempting fresh claims that her stance was being influenced by the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) of which she is an executive member, Ms McDonald said that was not the case as teachers could not carry their party card to the supermarket.

Ms Kissoon, a General Council representative said the General Secretary and a number of the members of the GTU’s negotiating team were deceived into going to the Ministry of Education to sign. She said teachers would have to explore options to address the issue.

Dr Lyte said “only time would tell” whether the division, which “always existed”, would be repaired.

The GTU had staged a 75-day strike and taken the Ministry of Education to court as part of efforts to pressure government to hold collective bargaining on financial matters. The court ruled in the GTU’s favour and the State has since appealed.