UWI braces for shutdown

THE University of the West Indies (UWI) St Augustine campus will either be completely shutdown or severely crippled from tomorrow. This was the word yesterday from West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT) president Vishnudat Singh who has seemingly rejected Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Minister Colm Imbert’s assurance that he would try to get WIGUT members the increased benefits for which they have been agitating.

Singh told Sunday Newsday that WIGUT did not feel reassured by Imbert’s promise on Friday to “get some movement” out of the Public Sector Negotiating Committee early this week. He said WIGUT received a January 4 letter from Imbert in which the minister allegedly indicated that there were no guarantees that the group would receive the increases it was clamouring for. Singh added that the group has been given promises such as this since November 2004 and while certain initiatives may be in the pipeline, its patience was wearing thin. He said WIGUT has clearly spelled out what would happen at the St Augustine campus if its concerns are not met its 375 members would withdraw their services from tomorrow as part of “Black Day” activities. However, he said WIGUT does not have the ability to shut down the campus because UWI’s administrative technical support services employees are not WIGUT members.

Singh said he was not prepared at this time to reveal how long WIGUT intended to pursue this course of action and ruled out any 11th hour possibility of “Black Day” being averted. Singh added that neither Imbert nor any ministry representative has contacted WIGUT to date and the group was awaiting “a new initiative from the minister.” Efforts to contact Imbert and UWI principal Dr Bhoe Tewarie were unsuccessful. However sources at UWI said contingency measures were being organised to ensure that students were not adversely affected by any action which takes place at the campus during the coming week.

At the St Augustine campus yesterday, activities were proceeding as normal but the opinions of the student population to the impending shutdown were divided. While some students believed the university lecturers and other employees were well within their rights to take industrial action, others believed that WIGUT may be jumping the gun and has not exhausted all of its other options. While some students said they were willing to take make-up classes, the majority of students interviewed by Sunday Newsday were concerned about how long-term industrial action would impact upon their ability to complete their respective courses of study within the designated time period. Several were optimistic that good sense would prevail on all sides and that Government would intervene to help the situation at UWI.