Teachers hang tough - School shutdown averted but JTA delegates reject wage offer and send executive back to the bargaining table
Published:Saturday | March 3, 2018 | 12:00 AMErica Virtue
Militant teachers, by a massive margin, yesterday voted to reject the Government’s latest wage offer, and ordered their executive to return to the bargaining table.
During a special conference at the Wolmer’s Boys’ School in the Corporate Area, delegates of the 23,000-strong Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) said no to a four-year contract as they mandated the executive to ensure that the agreement will retain its two-year format or there will be no deal.
But the tough-talking teachers baulked at a proposal from their more radical colleagues to shut down schools islandwide to press their demand for a better offer.
From early in the day it was clear that the majority of the more than 350 public-school teachers at the conference were in no mood to accept the offer which had been placed on the table, and when it was put to a vote, 313 said no, 37 said yes, with one spoilt and one no response.
The wage offer placed before the teachers was for the four-year period April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2020.
It provided them with two options, six per cent in year one, no increase in year two, five per cent in year three and five per cent in year four.
LOUD AND CLEAR
The second option presented was year one five per cent; year two two per cent, year three four per cent, and year four five per cent.
Following the vote, JTA President Georgia Waugh Richards declared that her executive members were servants of the people and the message was heard loud and clear.
“And so we will begin the conversation as to what is acceptable to the teachers of Jamaica,” said Waugh Richards.
Immediately, one St Thomas delegate told the conference what should happen.
“We have spoken loudly, madam, and it is time for us to get to work. It is action time and I say with the support of all of us, we must shut it down,” said the delegate to much applause.
“We must revert to a two-year wage cycle. No more four years, and we must get an increase on our allowance that affects the teachers across the board,” the delegate added, to more strong support.
The delegates further warned the executive that the new offer must have benefits for the regular classroom teachers, who were the main burden bearers in the system, but who benefit the least under the present system.
They are demanding that the special allowance of protective clothing be increased to $20,000 per annum, up from the current $18,504.
They also want teachers to be paid $2,500 to mark research papers and $2,000 per student for supervising teaching practice.
Both were rejected by the Government in the proposed agreement that had been placed on the table.
With those strict instructions the delegates, by a slim margin, voted to give the JTA’s General Council the power to review any new offer placed on table by the Government and make a decision on their behalf.
But with 109 delegates not in favour of this move and 119 supporting it, Waugh Richards found herself having to defend the JTA against those who argued that its communication process was weak, as many teachers were not aware of the details of the wage offer.
“We have been serving you from the inception of the JTA and we will not divest ourselves of the responsibility of carrying your message forward. Leaving from here, the secretary general will respond, carrying your message in writing,” said Waugh Richards.