Her statement came on the heels of Minister of Education Alfred Sears’ warning that there will be consequences for the ‘irresponsible and illegal’ actions of protesting teachers. He said there would be pay cuts.
Mrs Poitier-Turnquest, however, characterised the Minister’s statements as being an “intimidation” tactic. “I don’t think Mr Sears will do any cutting of their salaries. I think he will probably consider it,” Mrs Poitier said.
Questioned as to what the union would do if the threat were carried out, Mrs Poitier-Turnquest said, “The union would do what the union has to do.”
Asked whether she was referring to further industrial action, she said no, although Mr Sears made it quite clear that the government would not tolerate any further “illegal” actions.
In the meantime, the BUT leadership came under fire from one of its members who expressed anger about the manner in which negotiations were being conducted.
“I think that it is being handled haphazardly,” the teacher said. “I do believe that they are being unreasonable. If you are not negotiating about pay, then why not sit down and make some kind of sense about what you are negotiating for, whether those are medical insurance, pension, working environment, whatever it is that you are negotiating about. If those are to be the first issues, then negotiate in good faith and don’t have the teachers rushing to support you when the negotiations are taking place.”
The angry teacher said it is almost like “a ship without a rudder and the captain pushing [a] hole in the boat and causing the ship to sink.”
The teacher also refuted the union’s claim that all teachers were on the job yesterday. The BUT gave teachers the okay to stage Friday’s industrial action, but refused to put it in writing, she said.
According to the teacher, shop stewards received the word at school that whatever action they wanted to take was fine, but the BUT would not give the go-ahead on paper.
“We got a call Thursday, which said ya’ll could have the sick-out or the sit-out, whatever it is ya’ll want to do; any industrial action, but we will not put anything in writing to say that the union is supporting this particular action,” the teacher alleged.
She said that this was what led to Friday’s industrial action, where public schools were forced to close about two hours early as a result of only a skeleton teaching staff showing up for work.
By: KEVA LIGHTBOURNE, The Nassau Guardian
