Teachers to march and rest

TEACHERS ARE intensifying their protest action to show their disagreement with the latest offer from the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO). They will stage a solidarity march in South Trinidad tomorrow and will be taking two more days of “rest and reflection” on Friday and Tuesday. These were the decisions taken by the General Council of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), at an emergency meeting at the Chaguanas Junior Secondary on Monday evening. TTUTA president Trevor Oliver told Newsday the General Council had “unanimously rejected the latest offer of the CPO” which he claimed amounted to a three-year wage freeze from October 2001 to December 2004.”

Oliver said teachers are being mobilised to engage in several activities, starting with the solidarity march in San Fernando tomorrow from 10.30 am. The venue for the start of the march will be announced today. In addition, TTUTA has declared Friday and Tuesday of next week as “rest” days. Oliver said the General Council will meet to decide further action. Last week, teachers also participated in a day of “rest and reflection” which TTUTA later declared a success. Oliver said the General Council noted that this country is a democracy “where the rights of all citizens should be respected” and vowed to “strongly resist any attempt by the Ministry of Education or any other body to unilaterally, and in an undemocratic fashion, interfere with leave entitlements of teachers guaranteed by law.”

TTUTA and CPO Narieman Hosein-Ahmad are locked in negotiations for a new collective agreement for the period October 2002 to September 2005. However, the CPO has offered the union no salary increases for the first year, a three percent “minimal” increase for the next 15 months to December 2004, and full market salaries for “grades three and four only” from January 2005 for the last nine months of the agreement. TTUTA said in effect the CPO was asking teachers to live in 2004 on the salaries of 2001, and has effectively left recent retirees out of the proposal. The union is demanding that all teachers between grades one to four be paid at the full market value, and is insisting that recent retirees benefit meaningfully from any new agreement. Oliver said the union was not concerned about the threats of “penalties” being imposed on teachers by the Ministry of Education for engaging in days of “rest and reflection.” He said the union’s focus was on fighting for decent salaries and they will not be distracted. The union is expected to meet again with the CPO on Friday.