Striking teachers took to the streets again yesterday, one week after staging a march to highlight their wage demands.
Though not as large as last Wednesday’s march when over one thousand teachers turned out, hundreds of teachers and some parents and their children paraded around the city again calling for further increases for 2002. Initially numbering over six hundred, the procession grew as some teachers joined along the route, which began and ended at the Guyana Teachers’ Union’s (GTU) Woolford Avenue headquarters.
Led by GTU General Secretary Avril Crawford the teachers marched around the city for nearly three hours.
Placards read “The struggle continues \ Till the money comes” and “No money\ No SBA marks”. The procession moved off at 10:50 am, beneath a light drizzle. Lined three in a row and cordoned on both sides, there were chants from the procession which ranged from the irreverent to the reverent.
To press their demands for a 15% across-the-board increase in salaries for 2002, teachers took industrial action from March 5.
The Ministry of Education made a payout to teachers last year after conciliation talks failed.
It has refused the union’s demand to take the issue to arbitration saying that the union had failed to respond in a timely manner to a request by the Ministry of Labour to arrange a meeting between the two sides. The GTU has denied this.