| – as Vice Chancellor withdraws “inadequate” pay hikeFollowing a meeting yesterday morning between workers and their Unions, a decision was taken to sustain intense protest action at the University of Guyana (UG). This is according to President of the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA), Dr. Mellissa Ifill.The meeting, which was held in the Turkeyen campus’ George Walcott Lecture Theatre (GWLT) despite threats from the University’s Administration to lock the workers out if they did not resume duty, saw a commitment being made to continue strike action on Monday.And according to Dr. Ifill, the planned strike action will be similar to what occurred on Monday when workers formed a human barricade to halt the operations of the University.This level of industrial action the UGSSA head said is slated to continue until Wednesday.She anticipates that workers will turn up in their numbers to protest unfair treatment meted out to them by the Administration of the University.However, UG Vice Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi, has not only deemed such protest actions spearheaded by the University Unions as “unlawful” but he has withdrawn a 25 per cent pay increase for workers that would have altogether been payable over a three-year period.At least this is according to a letter he issued on Thursday to the UG Workers’ Unions – UGSSA and UGWU.The Vice Chancellor’s letter was addressed to the Heads of the two Unions—Dr. Ifill and Mr. Bruce Haynes.In the said letter, Opadeyi said that “the University Administration is dismayed at your Union’s action of proceeding and continuing with industrial actions without using all available avenues under the labour regulations to ensure that salary and benefits negotiations take place without any form of industrial unrest.”He spoke of a breakdown of negotiations between the University’s Negotiating Team and the Unions as merely a claim touted by the Unions and went on to stress that “there are recourses open to you under the law regulations for reconciliation measures.”Outlining his dissatisfaction with the Unions, the Vice Chancellor noted that following a meeting (between the Unions and the Negotiating Team) on Wednesday, “we were under the impression that the industrial actions have ended and we are back to normalcy. At the meeting we made certain offers that were rejected, according to your email of February 4, 2015, without any due analysis on the reasons for their rejection. We also read reports that the strike actions will continue despite that we are in negotiation.”Professor Opadeyi said that the proposed increase that was offered has been withdrawn. The proposal offered by the University would have seen University workers benefiting from a five per cent increase this year, 10 per cent next year and another 10 per cent the following year. The workers, through their Unions, have however rejected this proposal calling it “too meagre” and have instead called for a 25 per cent increase for each of the stipulated years at the minimum.The workers were initially demanding a 60 per cent pay increase across the board, among other benefits, and they are prepared to continue strike actions until their demands have been met. Industrial action by the university workers commenced last week with a sit-in but eventually evolved into full blown protest action.The intensified industrial action on Monday saw workers, together with some students also protesting their own concerns about the university, forming a human barrier at the front entrance and securing another at the back of the University effectively ensuring that its operation for that day was halted.And the Vice Chancellor, who was also in protesting mode on Monday, urged by way of placards, that the workers return to work.He in his letter to the Unions pointed out in his statement that “the act of blocking the entrances of the University and debarring workers and visitors from conducting their business…is unlawful.”This is in light of the fact, he said, that workers’ right to go to work is protected under the law.The protest action was further taken to the lawns of Office of the President on Thursday.But according to Professor Opadeyi, “We cannot negotiate under the atmosphere of industrial actions. We want our students to return for classes as we address their concerns with high degree of urgency. We wish to restate our position very clearly: we will not be negotiating while Union members or groups of workers are off the job or sit-in without doing work.”The Vice Chancellor continued by blasting what he dubbed as “the inability of some of our lecturers who teach management and industrial relations to advise the Union leaders of the acceptable approaches under the law for seeking redress on a matter like this.Professor Opadeyi has therefore noted that in order for the negotiations to continue “all workers must be back to work and classes are to be conducted as scheduled. We urge the workers of the University to resume duty without delay so as to pave the way for a genuine negotiation aimed to address their concerns.”Massa day againBut according to the Unions in a joint statement, the action of the Vice Chancellor clearly suggests that he and the Negotiating team are unconcerned about the welfare of either workers or students.“Indeed, how could they when the salaries of the handful of senior executive are reportedly nine per cent of the overall salary bill of the University?”The Unions have lashed out at the University’s executive by pointing out that they couldn’t relate to the workers on strike from the air conditioned offices. It was inferred too by the Unions that the protesting workers are required to function out of dilapidated, squalid, perpetually dusty offices with windows that are often missing or can’t close?“How could they (relate) when they don’t teach or learn in wretched, animal infested, filthy classrooms without proper or adequate ventilation or furniture? They pass us by, heads held high in their air conditioned duty free cars and their children are enrolled in the most expensive programmes free of cost while staff members have to wait four years before becoming eligible for tuition waivers for themselves or their children.It is massa day all over again at the University of Guyana!”It is moreover the view of the Unions that the Vice Chancellor is being “entirely disingenuous” when he writes that he and the negotiation team believed that the industrial actions had ended following a meeting on Wednesday.The Unions are insisting that notifications were always sent to the Vice Chancellor on the nature of the industrial action at least 48 hours before embarking on same.Moreover,Cheap Jerseys From China, at the end of the meeting the Union negotiators were asked to appeal to staff to end the action and accept the offer. “How then could the University’s team be ‘under the impression’ that the industrial actions had ended?The Unions are prepared to meet and continue the negotiations but AGAIN, the University has cancelled it. The VC is clearly not committed to ending this crisis and educating our students,” the Unions have maintained.It was pointed out in the joint statement that the decision to reject the offer proposed by the Negotiating Team was not one made merely by the Unions but rather by the workers, at both Turkeyen and Berbice, who are convinced that it is inadequate.Dubbing the Vice Chancellor’s missive as a “mean-spirited” one, the Unions noted that “withdrawing the paltry and insulting five per cent; 10 per cent; 10 per cent offer for 2015-2017 off the table is not unexpected from an administration that constantly utilises authoritarian and bullying rather than consultative tactics.”The Unions are nevertheless adamant that the survival of the University is dependent on the striking workers. It was therefore pointed out by the Unions that it is the staff of who have “sustained this University over the decades with our personal resources, energies and our determined efforts.Without us, the University of Guyana would not have survived and cannot survive. We must be treated with dignity and respect. Enough is enough!” concluded the Unions statement. |
