By Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorWHILE ACKNOWLEDGING their full backing of the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) in its wage dispute with Government, some teachers are questioning whether the organisation shouldn't have taken industrial action prior to last year's general election.
"In hindsight we may have given up a telling advantage," said Herrita Keyes, teacher. "I am inclined to believe the Government would have taken our position a lot more seriously if we had taken this action before the October 16 elections last year."
Ms. Keyes added that the JTA would now be hard-pressed to get the Government to budge, noting "the stakes are not as high as before... they don't have a general election to win anytime soon."
Winsome Afflick, another teacher, agreed. According to her, "we should have had the smarts to realise that the moment we got passed the elections, the more our position would have weakened."
"I am not saying the leadership has failed us," she stressed. "I am saying we may have blundered in not taking industrial action at a time when the Government was in a rather generous mood... just ask the leadership of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF)."
The island's more than 20,000 teachers, under the directive of the JTA, took what was the first of a planned two-day strike yesterday. The teachers are upset that the Government, while having increased the salaries of Parliamentarians by 103 per cent, has been less inclined to accommodate their demands for a 30 per cent wage increase.
A clearly irate Dr. Adolph Cameron, Secretary-General of the JTA, said the criticisms were unfair. Dismissing the notion as shortsighted, Dr. Cameron said the JTA was never in a position to force the Government's hand prior to the general election. "The situation with the police was totally different," he said. "By law, we had to appear before a salary board, the police didn't. We couldn't make that determination that we were going to settle before the election...it just doesn't work like that. I get real testy when I hear our members persons who should no better- talking like that. You have to understand, we are in a stronger position now than we ever could have been." Asked to elaborate, Dr. Cameron continued: "When the Government gave Parliamentarians that whopping 103 per cent increase our hand was significantly strengthened; why do you think the society is so solidly behind us?"
Dr. Cameron said it was clear that the Government, after August last year, felt they could get away with doing almost anything. "All the polls were showing then that they would win the elections," he said. "Realising this they were not anxious to do anything after September. Even if we had the latitude to do anything then, they wouldn't have budged."
Minister of Education, Maxine Henry-Wilson, said it wouldn't have made a difference had the teachers taken industrial action before last year's general election. "I am not sure as to what you expect me to say," she said. "We don't conduct negotiations or make hasty settlements based on the fact that there is a pending election."
Pressed on whether it didn't make a lot more sense to avoid at all costs the possibility of a strike on the eve of an election, the Minister said.
"We have been having ongoing negotiations with the teachers, nobody ever stopped them from doing anything. Let me make this clear... we have always negotiated in good faith as we recognise the value of our teachers. I am however surprise that they would take industrial action while we are still having negotiations."
Dr. Cameron said he wasn't impressed by anything the Minister had to say in her nationally televised speech on Sunday, warning that teachers will be forced to continue disrupting the school system until the Government decides to be reasonable.
