George Henry, Gleaner Correspondent
Clarendon:
JAMAICA Teachers' Association (JTA) president, Sadie Comrie, earned the wrath of teachers from the parishes of Clarendon, Manchester and St. Elizabeth on Friday, over the association's inability to arrive at a favourable offer for its over 20,000 membership for the contract period April 2002 to March 2004.
The contact teachers, who attended a seminar at Church Teachers' College in Mandeville and who clearly attended with their minds set on hearing what was the offer made to the teachers' union by the Government, were obviously disappointed when they were told by the president that there was nothing to tell them regarding their new salary package.
After explaining to the teachers as to how the negotiation process between the JTA and Government was conducted, Mrs. Comrie went on to tell them that the offer made had nothing in it and so it was rejected and a meeting was sought for further discussions.
One teacher, who appeared rather upset with the situation, then asked the JTA president to disclose what were the contents of the offer, but his request was turned down.
A seemingly confused Mrs. Comrie noted that the document which outlined the offer by Government was received on Monday last week but it did not have the percentage increase which the teachers' union asked for.
She stated that the JTA gave the Education Ministry an ultimatum to meet with its negotiating team by Friday, but no word was forthcoming up to mid-morning. She, however, said she received a telephone call at about 11:30 a.m. on Friday inviting the Conditions of Service team from the union to meet with the Minister of Education, Burchell Whiteman, tomorrow morning (Monday) at 10 o' clock.
Her announcement was met with a loud uproar among the teachers, some of whom shouted "that too close to election."
Orville Bucknor, a teacher from the Beersheeba Primary School in St. Elizabeth, told The Sunday Gleaner that he was dissatisfied with the way the negotiations have been conducted, saying that the process should have been concluded long before the election.
One female teacher said she was not optimistic that teachers would be getting a good offer from the Government. Accor-ding to her, Parliament had already been dissolved and there was no one who could speak on their behalf through that avenue. Another teacher who was very vocal shouted that the JTA had allowed the Government to trick teachers by allowing the salary negotiations to be clouded in the heat of the political campaign. Her argument was that by the time an offer is made, the election would have already passed and teachers would have to be satisfied with the crumbs handed down by Government.
However, she sounded a warning to the current Government stating that if no good offer is made at Monday's meeting with the Education Minister, teachers will be "logging off and will be linking up."
She was supported by a large number of her colleagues who also warned that they will not be putting up with any nonsense.
The JTA president told the over 100 teachers that following Monday's meeting teachers will be informed by mid-afternoon via the media as to what was the outcome of the talk.
