TTUTA rejecting any 0-0-0 talk

In a telephone interview yesterday, TTUTA president Lynsley Doodhai said while the impending strike action by the OWTU has not been discussed by the union’s central executive, he expressed the hope that this would not have any negative effects on the reopening of the new school term.

“TTUTA has noted the public statements by the president general of the OWTU about possible strike,” Doodhai said.

“We are cognisant of the fact that school would reopen on Monday and we are hoping that any possible planned strike will not have any negative impact in terms of the reopening of school,” Doodhai said, adding, “we are cautiously optimistic about the reopening of school and we await to see what happens.” And regarding Petrotrin’s offer to the union, Doodhai said, “We have not discussed the matter but as a trade union, which I am sure that when the matter is discussed, it would be a cause of concern to our general council and our central executive that an offer of zero-zero-zero has been made.” “The offer made to the OWTU, we would not be in favour of such an offer made to the OWTU because if that offer is made to TTUTA, we would reject that offer outright,” he said.

Doodhai continued, “The teachers union, we are due to commence negotiations shortly with the Chief Personnel Officer for the period October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2017.” He said the union has not received feedback regarding school repairs during the Christmas vacation as this would be known when schools were reopened.

Meanwhile, National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA) president,” Zena Ramatali, said major disruptions would occur should the strike action be undertaken on the first day of the new school term.

“I really hope there can be a speedy resolution to this issue and I really hope that OWTU and the government could sit around the table and come to some kind of an agreement,” she said.