BSTU happy

The Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) is extremely happy with the turnout of teachers at its March of Respect, which was held yesterday.

The March was held at the urging of fed up BSTU members, to signal their dissatisfaction with the level of disrespect they say has been meted out to them by the Ministry of Education, in refusing to address a number of their concerns, which include violence against teachers, payment for the marking of school based assessments (SBAs), health and safety concerns, as well as environmental matters.

The march got under way from Queen’s Park just before 10:30 a.m. yesterday and placard-bearing teachers sang in protest, all the way to the Chief Personnel Officer’s (CPO) office in the E. Humphrey Walcott Building in Culloden Road, St. Michael, where a few speeches were made, before teachers made their way to BSTU Headquarters in 8th Avenue, Belleville, St. Michael.

“I am very, very pleased with the turnout. We expected a good turnout, but this has exceeded expectations,” President of the BSTU, Mary-Ann Redman told members of the media, while stationed outside the CPO’s office.

“You know, we are the smaller of the two unions. Our membership is just about 500 and some part of that membership number is made up of retirees, so we are very, very pleased with the turnout today. We are a small union, but we are a forceful union. We fight and punch far above our weight, because we have that legacy as the second oldest union in this country and this union is responsible for all, and that is no exaggeration, all of the benefits that teachers have enjoyed in this country. That has come as a result of the work of the BSTU. That is the legacy that we have inherited and that is the legacy that we will leave for others,” Redman further commented.

Questioned about what will be the next step if the desired response from the Education Ministry to teachers’ numerous concerns is not forthcoming, the BSTU President hinted to further action.

“This demonstration today is just the beginning,” she said.

“At the beginning of the year, we had a general meeting of our membership and we said that 2017 would be a different type of year, that we were tired of writing letters, we were tired of being given the turnaround, we were tired of being dismissed, we were tired of being excluded and so, 2017 was going to be a year of action,” she stated.

Stressing that teachers were the ones who called for some form of protest action before the term ends today, Redman noted that the Union was grateful to the shop stewards at the various schools who rallied the teachers, given the limited time the BSTU had to mobilise all of its membership. (RSM)