• Latest
Teachers protest for 4% salary increase

Teachers protest for 4% salary increase

1 year ago

Weather Bulletin: Monday, 27 June 2 am

8 hours ago
Tropical Storm Chantal

Forecasters monitoring a strong second Tropical Wave 

22 hours ago

Weather Bulletin: Sunday, 26 June 2 pm

24 hours ago
National Cleanup Begins Friday

Tropical wave just over 300 miles east of Grenada

1 day ago
National Monuments Committee Working to Preserve Grenada’s Heritage

Re-envisioning the Grenada National Museum

1 day ago

Weather Bulletin: Sunday, 26 June (8 am)

1 day ago

Weather Bulletin: Saturday, 25 June (8 pm)

2 days ago
AEC statement regarding Covid-19 situation confronting the nation

Statement on 2022 General Elections

2 days ago
Claims of coronavirus at SGU designed to create fear and panic

Covid-19 update: Grenada Dashboard 24 June 2022

2 days ago
NDC announces 7 candidates

Caribbean leaders congratulate Dickon Mitchell on assuming Grenada PM’s office

2 days ago
National Cleanup Begins Friday

Tropical wave to affect State of Grenada on Sunday

2 days ago
Supervisor of Elections signs agreement with Chief of OAS Observer team

OAS Electoral Observation Mission reports for Grenada General Elections 2022

2 days ago
NOW Grenada
  • Front Page
  • Categories
    • General News
      • All
      • Agriculture & Fisheries
      • Arts & Culture
      • Business
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • History
      • Lifestyle
      • Law
      • Politics
      • Technology
      • Travel & Tourism
      • Weather
      • Youth
    • Sports
      • All
      • Athletics
      • Cricket
      • Football
      • Watersports
    • Community
      • All
      • Tribute
    • Crime
    • Features
      • All
      • Today in History
    • Opinion/Commentary
    • Press Releases
      • All
      • Advertisements
      • Notices
  • Video
  • Notices & Vacancies
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Front Page
  • Categories
    • General News
      • All
      • Agriculture & Fisheries
      • Arts & Culture
      • Business
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • History
      • Lifestyle
      • Law
      • Politics
      • Technology
      • Travel & Tourism
      • Weather
      • Youth
    • Sports
      • All
      • Athletics
      • Cricket
      • Football
      • Watersports
    • Community
      • All
      • Tribute
    • Crime
    • Features
      • All
      • Today in History
    • Opinion/Commentary
    • Press Releases
      • All
      • Advertisements
      • Notices
  • Video
  • Notices & Vacancies
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
NOW Grenada
No Result
View All Result

Teachers protest for 4% salary increase

This story was posted 1 year ago
24 March 2021
in Business, Education, General News
3 min. read
Share

by Linda Straker

  • Incoming President of the Grenada Union of Teachers says the march is for social and economic justice
  • Public Workers Union (PWU) joined in the protest
  • Government has asked to defer the salary increase

With less than 7 days before they are scheduled to receive their salaries that will not reflect the 4% increase in salary of the 2018 collective bargaining agreement, retired and current teachers took to the streets of St George in a march for justice on Tuesday, 23 March 2021.

The peaceful protest saw many teachers dressed in red shirts and displaying placards with justifications for the increase, to press for Government to resolve the matter.

“As you can see, this is an intensification of the action,” said Marvin Andall, outgoing President of the Grenada Union of Teachers (GUT). “The fact is the longer the Government takes to meet its commitment, the more intense our effort will be,” he added, without disclosing the planned industrial actions.

Jude Bartholomew, incoming President of the GUT, said that the activity which had hundreds of teachers leaving the classrooms is a march for social and economic justice. “It’s a march for all workers, it’s a march for all public workers… that is a worthy and just cause,” said Bartholomew, who was elected to head the Union a few weeks ago.

The members of the Public Workers Union (PWU) who are also facing non-payment of the increase also joined in the protest, which started at the National Stadium area and proceeded to the Ministerial Complex.

In late 2020, the Government informed unions that it would be unable to pay the increase signed in the 2018 collective agreement, because of reducing revenue. The reduction is being linked directly to measures enforced to deal with Covid-19. This included a lockdown of the country, which according to the Government’s monthly fiscal report, saw 50% of the revenue projected in the 2020 budget, and further reduction for the year 2021.

The unions are contending that the Government’s fiscal situation is not as negative as claimed. The Government says that the decision to pay the increase will result in a monthly increase of EC$13.2 million for the year to the central Government.

“Covid-19 has, without question, significantly disrupted life as we know it, and Government has had to bear the brunt of the impact. In the blink of an eye, the Government had to take immediate emergency policy action to provide support to households and businesses, which involved significant unplanned expenditure,” said a Government statement in January 2021.

The Government has asked the Union to defer the salary increase to a later date, but no date was given.

NOW Grenada is not responsible for the opinions, statements or media content presented by contributors. In case of abuse, click here to report.
Tags: collective bargaining agreementcoronaviruscovid-19educationgovernmentgrenada union of teachersgutlinda strakerpublic workers unionpwusalaryschoolteachertrade unionwage
Next Post

Message by Minister for Education

Comments 2

  1. Justin courtney says:
    1 year ago

    These comments are unfortunate and filled with negative emotions. These don’t win over people. The teachers didn’t loose their jobs because of a lack of activity instead covid brought new challenges for them. When you work you expect rewards and teachers worked sometimes from their homes and most times in classrooms. Thank god when they did so the amount of covid exposure was not significant enough to result in transmission. Teachers are frontline workers too and without them economic recovery will be impossible. So instead of your emotional outburst engage your brains to find realistic solutions. They don’t have the power to control the price of gas or milk or meat but they work and their 4% though inadequate to compensate for the steep increases they have no control over is rightfully theirs. If in the interest of nation building they choose to wait is up to them but it is not fair to force it upon them.i

    Reply
  2. . says:
    1 year ago

    What a joke! These people need to get off and get rid of their childish mentality. They aint get not one 4% increase but I hope they get a 4% decrease. Too ungrateful selfish greedy people. They should be thankful that they still have their jobs and a means of income.

    What about those who lost their jobs in the tourism industry. What about those having to go out and hustle by knocking up ply shops and having to go sell food just to make a living for themselves? Never am I going to agree with what these teachers are doing they need to stop!

    All these people want is just more money to import japanese garbage vehicles that the Japanese are trying to dump here. These teachers shouldn’t be having nothing to complain for than to get better working conditions. It needs to stop. We need to shut down these protests and demonstrations.

    The Government even said they will still pay them! Unfortunately that they are so ignorant and childish they want to the money up front and now. WE ARE GOING THROUGH A PANDEMIC AND MORE LIKELY A RECESSION THESE PEOPLE MUST STOP. Government can’t even find money to fix potholed in the road so that they could drive their japanese dump garbage. I know no one aint gonna agree with this bs.

    Reply

Comment on post Cancel reply

Please enter your valid email address.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

[bsa_pro_ad_space id=9 crop=”no” max_width=300]

© NOW Grenada. All Rights Reserved. Published by Aqua Design Inc. | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

No Result
View All Result
  • Front Page
  • Categories
    • General News
      • All
      • Agriculture & Fisheries
      • Arts & Culture
      • Business
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • History
      • Lifestyle
      • Law
      • Politics
      • Technology
      • Travel & Tourism
      • Weather
      • Youth
    • Sports
      • All
      • Athletics
      • Cricket
      • Football
      • Watersports
    • Community
      • All
      • Tribute
    • Crime
    • Features
      • All
      • Today in History
    • Opinion/Commentary
    • Press Releases
      • All
      • Advertisements
      • Notices
  • Video
  • Notices & Vacancies
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us

Copyright NOW Grenada

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings. Visit our Privacy Policy | Terms of Use.

Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Visit our Privacy Policy | Terms of Use.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.