April 23rd, 2009
Term 3 of the 2008 – 2009 academic school year was due to start this past Monday. However, Monday morning I noticed an inordinate amount of un-uniformed kids running around in the ‘yard’. Usually by about 7:30 AM kids speckle the roadside in their various school uniforms. For a moment I was confused by the scene; it was the first day back from a two week break, and I was wondering why any matters were not dealt with during the scheduled break. My confusion faded as I began to find out what was going on. Parents in the community were mentioning something about the teachers union going on strike! I was told that school would resume Wednesday. I had no real way of confirming this information though, as I have no internet or TV and my phone was lost on the beach 2 weeks ago. When I arrived at school Wednesday I heard the details. Apparently the Teachers Union was given notice last Tuesday that they would not be receiving the 7.5% salary increase that was promised to them by the Ministry. They held a meeting on Monday and vowed to strike on Thursday for 3 working days if their adjusted salaries were not in the bank by Thursday morning. They did have school on Tuesday, though the attendance was low, as will be for the rest of the week. No student wants to pay bus fare for no reason.
Today the increase did not show up in the banks and no teachers went to school. I still went to the school, where I found out even more information. People were talking about the Prime Ministers announcement that the government does not have the funds for the raise. The Union plans to meet again with the ministry on Monday and continue the strike if no agreement is made. I heard that teachers went on strike for over a month once and they are prepared to strike again!
This is the second occurrence of teachers striking since I have been in St. Lucia. I have also witnessed a strike by the gasoline dealers. Everything slows down when this happens. I just feel bad for the students. Many students are in the middle of major examinations at this time and the strike risks appropriate preparation for them.
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4 comments:
Actually the gas dealers never went on strike, they just threatened it and scared everyone.
But yeah, we'll find out in a couple weeks what happens when the teachers still don't have their raise.
we the teachers are now on strike. we've been on strike since the 26 of may and there seemes to be no end in site. we've decided to accept a 4.5% increased as opposed to the 7.5 due to us but the government is being very arrogant in his methods of handling the situation. today is the 3 of june and both parties should've been at the negotiating table with this new devlopment but the government has decided to look to the region for help instead of trying to find an amicable way to resolve this ongoing situation. this will only keep on escalating if he continues along the path. on another note "ALL CIVIL SERVANTS" are on strike, not just teachers. i miss my grade six class and i do care about them but i refuse to support the way in which the government handled the situation.
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