– but insists UG workers have a right to strikeStudents of the University of Guyana (UG) are not buying into a subtle proposal by the tertiary institution’s workers unions – the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) – for them to fully support ongoing strike action.From Left: UGSS’s President, Joshua Griffith, Elsie Harry and Nicholas CarrylThis is according to member of the University of Guyana Students Society (UGSS), Nicholas Carryl, who currently chairs a Special Committee aimed at helping to return normalcy to UG.During a march to the city last week Monday as part of intensified strike action, President of the UGSSA, Dr. Mellissa Ifill, who was accompanied by scores of workers and other supporters, speculated that support of the students could possibly lend to an earlier resolution to the industrial action.She said that while the striking workers understand the concerns of the students, at the same time, they are seeking to ensure that the quality of education that is being delivered is what they deserve.“We also need to ensure that as staff we can live decent lives…We sympathise but our resolve is strong; we urge them (students) to come on board with us, in fact, I would want to suspect that if they came on board with us a resolution would be much sooner rather than if we were to do it alone,” Dr. Ifill noted.But Carryl, reacting to that comment during a recent UGSS spearheaded media conference, said that since the ongoing dispute is between the University’s administration and the Unions “the students were not, are not and could never be a party to the labour dispute.”He nevertheless affirmed that students, through a ‘Revolution’ initiative of the UGSS, are making some demands that do coincide with what striking lecturers are calling for as it relates to better teaching facilities.“Better teaching facilities for them mean better learning conditions for us. So although they coincide in that way we are not taking any sides in the labour dispute.”He added that the UGSS position, and by extension that of the students, is that “we want both sides (Administration and Unions) to be reasonable and return to the negotiating table so that there could be normalcy at the University.”“Most students want classes; they want what they paid for,Cheap Adidas Shoes Online Australia,” Carryl said.His comments were mirrored by UGSS President, Joshua Griffith, who said that even when the UGSS had engaged talks with the unions “we had stated unequivocally that the students have concerns about the performance of some of their members, and we would continue to bring that to the fore.”Griffith noted that while the UGSS understands the premise for the ongoing industrial action “it is not that we would go all out and support any one party. We must remain cognizant that we represent the interest of students and that is where we stand.”When questioned about the UGSS support for the industrial action during its early stages, UGSS Council Representative, Elsie Harry, sought to point out that it was in fact the media that skewed the position of the UGSS.According to her, “From the beginning we had made it clear that we are not supporting strike action. We support the cause of our lecturers so it is not to say that we are supporting the strike and us not having classes from the beginning and now we are jumping ship; that was never the case.”“The UGSS always said that we support the fact that our lecturers deserve to be paid (more), that the conditions at the University of Guyana need to be fixed but we are not involving ourselves in the method they (Unions) choose to display these grievances. We are just saying that the method that they have chosen currently is not the one that we would prefer since we are not having classes,” Harry highlighted.She noted that while the UGSS does not have the authority to prevent lecturers from striking, it certainly wouldn’t want that right to be taken away from them or even from the UGSS. “What we are saying is, while you are doing this or doing that, please be mindful of the effects that it would have on the students.”UG Vice Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi, has since lobbied the UGSS to work along with the University administration to amplify the “effects” concerns. But according to Harry the UGSS is still not prepared to take sides in the matter.“If we decide we are siding with the administration or we decide we are siding with the unions; who is left to represent student issues? We have to stay where we stand as students and represent those issues not the issues of the administration, not the issues of the union,” asserted Harry.UG workers have for close to one month been engaged in strike action to retaliate a breakdown of negotiations for increased salaries, improved working conditions and other benefits. The Unions have sought the intervention by way of a letter from President Donald Ramotar and the Ministry of Labour but is yet to garner intervening support.Moreover, the Unions are adamant that unless a decent proposal is made by the Administration, it is not prepared to bring an end to the strike action.
