Stopping short of calling their actions illegal, Prime Minister Perry Christie yesterday told hundreds of teachers demonstrating in downtown Nassau that they needed to be mindful of the negative message their action was sending to thousands of young people in the country.
"You know what I'm concerned about always? When we determine that we have to take aggressive action we are relating it to school children and their perception of what they have to do to express themselves," said Mr. Christie, who told the protestors that leaders in the country – including government officials and educators – must set a good example for the nation's youth.
"When you try to redefine the way things ought to be done, remember you are redefining it not just for yourselves, you're redefining it for people who are watching you and they include children."
Mr. Christie stopped to talk to the teachers on his way into the House of Assembly. It came after they converged on Bay Street, blocking the road and creating a traffic nightmare for hundreds of motorists, many of them trying to get to their jobs.
The teachers called a demonstration after a general meeting on Tuesday afternoon during which time they rejected the government's proposal for a new contract.
Minister of Labour Shane Gibson suggested that the protest was premature considering that negotiations for the new contract are not set to start until next week. He indicated that the educators never even gave the process a chance.
Prime Minister Christie told the demonstrators that while in his car on his way to parliament he listened to many members of the public expressing outrage on a local radio talk show about the teacher's action.
But Bahamas Union of Teachers President Ida Poitier told The Bahama Journal that BUT is confident that it had the public's full support.
"Teachers are not being irresponsible," she insisted. "The public is in total support of the teachers. They realise that the teachers have been shortchanged and they are with us 100 percent. I get calls daily saying 'keep going, be encouraged.'"
In Parliament Square, meanwhile, the prime minister was telling the teachers that he and his government are no doubt aware that they have submitted a counterproposal. He said someone telephoned him from Trinidad Tuesday night to tell him that the Bahamian teachers were about to "come to Bay Street."
"The government has determined to have negotiations through people who are able, we thought, to establish good faith with the union," Mr. Christie said.
One union member quickly said to the prime minister that the government needed to change its negotiators – trade union veterans Keith Archer and Frank Carter.
But the prime minister quickly shot back, saying that it's the government's prerogative to determine who its negotiators are.
"Don't get caught up in the messenger," he urged the teachers, asking them as well to try to negotiate in the "spirit of proper negotiations" and focus on the issues at hand.
"A prime minister is always at the disposal of the people of the country, but if a government determines on the mode of negotiating agreements the prime minister tries not to interfere with that unless it is necessary for good order and public peace."
Teachers listening to him told him in response, "It's necessary now."
Mr. Christie then said, "The only sorrow I have in this matter is that you determined without notice that this is a day that you had to do this."
He told the protestors that his government is always willing to negotiate in a "sensible and proper fashion" and did not think that the action taken by the teachers was appropriate.
Had he gotten a call from the BUT, the prime minister said he would have been willing to speak with the leadership in his office yesterday morning, but he said no one bothered to call.
"That's what bothers me about the process," Mr. Christie added.
Asked by The Bahama Journal whether the teachers were being irresponsible in their actions, the prime minister said, "I'm not going to answer that other than to say that all of us have a responsibility to understand the way in which our country ought best to function."
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
