The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union says its annual consultation with the Unity Labour Party government ahead of the budget is becoming an exercise in futility.
“It is becoming a useless exercise, that we’re spending time, money, energy, sacrificing your family to go there and sit down with them, and the prime minister wants to do all the talking for the whole day,” Robinson said at a recent press conference.
“And … I tell him, this is not what we come here for, you invited us to speak to something that is what we’re here for, representing our members, we’re not interested in any political thing about that party, and that’s not our business.
“We are concerned about the state of affairs in St Vincent and the Grenadines and if the teachers’ union can work with you to help deal with the crime situation in the country, if you could empower teachers, pay them a better salary, create better working condition, the place is safe, we’ll work, but don’t call us and you alone do all the talking.
“And when we show you what we have here, you jump from that one to that one to the next. Doesn’t work so.”
The union leader outlined several matters that the union was trying to resolve with the government, including the EC$58,000 the government owes the union in legal fees that the court has ordered it to pay.
“They never paid a cent. And every time we go to what they call the so-called consultation, we remind them,” eh said, adding that the union did so at the last consultation as well as the one ahead of the 2024 fiscal package.
He said that during the Dec. 3, 2024 consultation, the union presented a document to the government outlining its proposal and the rationale behind them.
“We talk about the rate of inflation and all of that, and we reminded them about the money that they owed us.”
“It is right here, outstanding payment of legal fees amounted to 58,000 still owed by the government, which needs to be resolved,” Robinson said, holding up a document.
He said the union’s delegation also reminded the government that since 2010, it has “robbed” principals of EC$90 of their end-of-year allowance.
Also, the union said that it had heard that the government was talking about charging schools for using playing facilities.
The union’s proposal therefore included that the government allocate EC$15,000 through the Ministry of Sports for the use of sporting facilities for physical education and annual sports.
“And we ask for a salary increase for 2026 and 2027 because a little 7% that they gave, that they now announced the last piece, and some of the workers feel that is something new, that is something that was discussed three years ago,” he said.
However, the government did not accept any of the union’s proposals.
“They ain’t touch a thing. We ask our vouchers for teachers to access much-needed basic resources,$500 for teachers, and they could do it per term. … We asked for traveling allowances for teachers who have to move from remote areas. Everything is in this document in black and white. And some of these things are things that we submitted before,” Robinson said.
“All the schools here I mentioned it’s in this,” he said, referring to the schools he had identified by names and the issues at each.
“We talked about the higher cost of living in North Windward and Southern Grenadines, and they need to address it. They did not touch one of our proposals to them in the House of Parliament. So when they come again and they tell us, Come to consult.’ If we ain’t show up, what they going to say?”