Labourite urges parents to wear black in solidarity with protesting teachers

CHRISTIANA, Manchester:

A Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) parish council aspirant has called for parents across the island to wear black and join teachers in their fight for increased wage.

"Wear black because we need to ensure that the nation's children are taken care of in the right way," Ian Hibbert said while urging parents to show solidarity with the teachers.

Hibbert,  a teacher at the Bellefield High School in Central Manchester,  is also the JLP's proposed candidate for the division.

He told Labourites at the Christiana High School Sunday that his peers are now protesting because of a "delinquent government", adding that it is important that the government honours the request for a proper wage increase.

Public sector workers,  including teachers,  have endured a five-year wage freeze which is a precondition of two consecutive agreements with the International Monetary Fund inked in 2010 and 2013.

However,  with the wage freeze now lifted the government has proposed a five per cent increase over two years which has been rejected by the teachers.

They are instead demanding a 30 per cent increase.

The People's National Party controls all parish councils and local authorities having wiped out the JLP in the last local government election.

The PNP controls the Manchester Parish Council having won 11 of the 15 seats in the March 2012 polls.