Responsibility for the resumption of the teachers’ strike must be laid squarely at the feet of the Irfaan Ali/Bharrat Jagdeo regime. So said Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) General Secretary, Lincoln Lewis, as he lambasted the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government for its “anti-workers stance, contempt for the court’s ruling and outright disregard for the nation’s teachers.”
An aggrieved Lewis, told Village Voice News, “as President Ali and his band of merry men and women eat mutton, the workers get nothing.” This is highly unacceptable in this oil-rich and world’s fastest growing economy, the trade unionist said.
The teachers proceeded on strike action yesterday, having given notice to the government, its employer. The strike was put on pause after the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and Ministry of Education on March 4, 2024, after a written agreement between the two parties was struck in the High Court before Justice Kissoon. This agreement bound both sides to commence negotiation on the proposal submitted in August 2020. Those talks broke down on March 12, 2024 after Government reneged on the court ordered agreement.
Meanwhile, on April 19, 2024 Justice Kissoon ruled the teachers 29-days strike lawful, government must hisse the teachers for the days they were on strike and continue the deduction and remittance of union dues. This strike was put on pause to give the agreement an opportunity to work.
GTU wants the Government to address the multi-year proposal submitted in August 2020 for increased wages/salary and working conditions for the period 2019-2023. The government, after initially agreeing to do so, is now insisting it wants to start the negotiation for year 2024.
According to the GTUC general secretary, the continuation of the teachers’ strike is just and fair. “It is the government that has taken a decision it will not honour Article 23(1) of the Trade Union Recognition Law, which states where a recognition certificate exists the employer has to negotiate with the trade union in good faith.” The trade unionist said rather than sit with the union as a responsible government, ways and means are being looked at to trample on the workers’ rights and the rule of law.
Questioning what manner of government the PPP is, the general secretary said “the party of Cheddi Jagan, that evvel pride itself as working class, has reduced the grave matter of protecting and defending workers’ rights to mockery at their party’s congress last weekend.” He is also calling on the society to give teachers solidarity. “Today it is the teachers, tomorrow it can be you, and we have to hold hands in pursuing better because what affects one invariably affects all.”
Justice Singh in his ruling chided the government for giving workers stone when they asked for bread and iterated the trade union’s use of strike as a “weapon of last resort.”
Article 127 of the Constitution of Guyana protects workers’ right to join a trade union of choice, engage in collective bargaining and freedom to strike. The government has signalled its intent to challenge Kissoon’s ruling all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice, Guyana’s court of last resort.
The Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Article 147 ‘Protection of freedom of assembly, association and demonstration.’
(1) Except with his or her own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his or her freedom of assembly, association and freedom to demonstrate peacefully, that to say, his or her right to assemble freely, to demonstrate peacefully and to associate with other persons and in particular to form or belong to political parties, trade unions or other associations for the protection of his or her interests.
(2) Except with his or her own consent no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his or her freedom to strike.
(3) Neither an employer nor a trade union shall be deprived of the right to enter into collective arguments.
(4) Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of this article to the extent that the law in question makes provision –
(a) that is reasonably required in the interests of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health;
(b) that is reasonably required for the purpose of protecting the rights or freedoms of other persons;
(c) that imposes restrictions upon public officers; or
(d) that imposes an obligation on workers to become contributors to any industrial scheme or workers’ organisation intended to operate or provide for the benefit or welfare of such workers or of their fellow workers or of any relative and of any of them.
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Trade Union Recognition Act, Cap 98:07
Section 23 (1) Compulsory recognition and duty to treat –
“Where a Trade Union obtains a certificate of recognition for workers comprised in a bargaining unit in accordance with this Part, the employer shall recognise the Union, and the union and the employer shall bargain in good faith and enter into negotiations with each other for the purpose of Collective Bargaining.”