TTUTA protests late payment of increments arrears

Not allowing light rain to disrupt their planned protest at the Ministry of Education, representatives of various arms of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) yesterday came out in large numbers to protest the late payment of arrears of increments to approximately 869 teachers for the period 1987 - 1995. Chanting, “We want our money now with interest,” and singing the union song, the large contingent began marching in an orderly manner along the pavement from the Ministry’s entrance on Alexandra Street, to the entrance on Hayes Street, under the watchful eyes of at least six police officers of the St Clair Police Station.

On seeing the number of officers, one teacher exclaimed, “For teachers! We are the most harmless people in the world,” to which another replied, “We must be a violent union.” Speaking with the media following the start of the march at 10.20 am, TTUTA president Trevor Oliver said persons at the protest included the national officers, the General Council and the Conference of Delegates, which represented approximately 175 persons. Additionally, affected teachers had also been invited to participate in the march, Oliver claimed, adding, “It is their choice to come, but it is mainly the leadership making a signal to the authorities about this non-payment.”

Lamenting the shortage of staff and archaic equipment at the ministry, Oliver said TTUTA had problems with how the ministry collected, processed and implemented data, as their inefficiency was preventing the 869 teachers from being paid their increments. Some persons are owed as much as $30,000. Revealing that the ministry had promised to pay the increments since last September, Oliver stated that the last batch of increments was paid one month ago, but not without some “pushing” by the union. TTUTA will meet with Education Minister Hazel Manning today to discuss curriculum reform, late payment of arrears, and the unification of the education system.

Questioned about whether more drastic action will be taken by TTUTA if the ministry fails to comply with its request to pay teachers, Oliver replied, “I cannot pre-empt what the General Council will decide.” However, he expressed hope that the matter could be resolved at the level of the minister at today’s meeting. “We are not predicting a closure of schools, but as a trade union, we are not ruling out anything. We have not called out all our forces today as it was not our intention to disrupt the school system,” he said. Yesterday’s protest action was not supposed to hamper the smooth re-opening of school following the two-week Easter vacation Oliver said, as teachers were not asked to protest. When Newsday contacted the communications specialist at the ministry, Mervyn Crichlow, he confirmed that there were no problems surrounding the re-opening of schools, but that students were excited about greeting cricketing hero Brian Lara.