Last Updated on Friday, 2 May 2025, 0:02 by Writer
Incoming president of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Coretta McDonald 0n Thursday said when she assumes office, the new union administration would push government to resume the automatic deduction and remittance of membership dues.
At the height of a crippling teachers strike last year, government had ceased the automatic deduction and remittance of membership dues to the GTU, saying it was not obligated to do so.
Set to be elected unopposed at the GTU’s elections, the executive member said a constant stream of financing is important for the union to provide representation and benefits as well as continue to engage international partners for mutual benefit.
Though the GTU had enlisted the service of a money transfer service for teachers to voluntarily pay their dues directly to the union, Ms McDonald said the flow of funds was not what it used to be.
“The GTU has engaged different mediums to ensure that our teachers could continue to remit their dues but it’s not on the large scale that we usually have it when all is being remitted from the agency that employs teachers and so we have now had a drop in the collection of dues but we will work to restore that,” she told Demerara Waves Online News.
General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis told May Day 2025 meeting after about 100 workers had braved torrential rains and marched through the city of Georgetown that there must be a “restoration of the check-off system for the Guyana Teachers’ Union by this uncaring government.”
“We need to shout and let them hear at State House, those who are dining there,” he said in reference to President Irfaan Ali.
The government maintains that the deduction and remittance of union dues is not mandatory but virtually a favour.
Ms McDonald has been serving as the GTU General Secretary since 2006, but before as Deputy General Secretary and other branch positions.
She also said the union would have to embark on a programme of “restoration, reformation and rebuilding” of the GTU, in the face of threats and victimisation after the 75-day strike.
“Our first and foremost action is to rebuild the confidence of our members, revitalise them and let them understand that regardless of what the government plans to do, our commitment to the union is to ensure that by whatever means our deductions are remitted to the union,” Ms McDonald said.
Asked how the GTU intends to forge a better relationship with whichever government that wins Guyana’s general elections later this year, Ms McDonald stressed that her union is “not a political organisation” but one that represents workers to ensure that their welfare is “first and foremost.”
“Whichever government comes into play, our mandate is to engage them to ensure that our members benefit,” she said, even as she recalled that the GTU had taken industrial action when A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) was in office in 2018.
She said the industrial action in 2021 and 2024 against the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration also demonstrates that the union was fighting for its members’ rights.
“It’s not a case of the GTU picking and choosing who they must take industrial action against but, again, we have always extended the olive branch to governments because our mandate is the welfare of our members,” she added.
The PPPC administration had often singled out Ms McDonald, a People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) member, to claim that the strike for collective bargaining was politically motivated.
On that score, she said the PPPC was engaging in double standards because an executive member of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) has always been a PPPC parliamentarian.
“This is the duplicity of this government,” she said.
On the contrary, she said she was being targeted for standing up for truth, rights, accountability and principles.
In a case brought by incumbent President Dr Mark Lyte, the High Court earlier this year ruled that Ms McDonald could hold elected office in the union although she is a parliamentarian.
PPP General Secretary and 2nd Vice President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo had often said Ms McDonald was holding union office in violation of the GTU’s constitution.
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