Dear Editor,
‘The rising tide lifts all boats’ is a truism that holds and so it is as Guyana’s economy grows but some want their boats lifted as a priority, they also think their boats are more important and deserve to be higher. Fueled by wild assertions about the amount of ‘oil money’ being earned, there is a scramble for a ‘fair share’ with no thought for others, for sustainability, for infrastructure, for investment in youth through education and job creation; it is more for public servants, more for teachers, nurses, police, soldiers, more, more, more! The teachers are on strike for more presently despite the lowest paid being $205,000 per month; the Police must be watching this with some amazement as a Constable makes the same as a Trainee teacher and Corporal makes $134,000 per month for much more responsibilities than an untrained graduate teacher.
I would think the Police need attention before the teachers, and then there are the nurses, who certainly deserve more. The point is we (Guyanese) are all in the same boat and it will take time for the improvements to come to our sector. The ‘oil money’ is funding less than 20% of the 2024 budget, it cannot cover the present public sector salaries much less fund selective increases. The teachers have benefited from full pay during the pandemic without a requirement to be at work, unlike the police and nurses who were deemed ‘essential’ and had to turn up or be fired; full advantage was taken of the pandemic and, in many cases, teachers were paid up to two years without being ‘on the job’. On a regular day there is 30% absenteeism of teachers in school, in any other service heads would roll.
On Monday, 5th Feb, Coretta McDonald announced that the GTU had acquired a corporate sponsor who would cover any strike relief payments as needed, in 2018 The Guyana Teachers Union was audited by the Auditor General after a complaint was made that the union was unable to meet strike relief payments if necessary. The Corporate sponsor was not named nor the support quantified, so this appears to be a blank check or private arrangement between McDonald and the sponsor. I look forward to learning more about the sponsor in the coming weeks.
The ‘corporate sponsor’ statement was preceded by an assertion by McDonald that “many, many of our teachers are afro-Guyanese, and this government is anti-working, more than that, they look to punish a certain set of people, and because of that our teachers fall into line” this is thinly veiled race-baiting and is reminiscent of the PNC’s Volda Lawrence promising to give jobs to ‘people who look like me” at a meeting in Congress Place 2018. The charge by the government that the GTU strike is politically motivated is supported by the presence of many non-teacher, PNC activists in the picket lines.
Teachers have decided that ‘The squeaky wheel gets the grease’ and it is better to follow the noisemaker than wait for the tide; to facilitate them at the expense of other public sector workers would be a folly and inevitably lead to ever-widening circles of labor disputes and unrest. A stern warning should be issued and then firm action to rein in those who have this sense of entitlement at the expense of the rest of us. The strike numbers are not public but I believe there were more than 70% of the teachers in school today, which is higher than average; an irony that does not escape notice.
Sincerely
Robin Singh
