Teachers more militant over wage talks while nation on brink of election, new school year
Ainsworth Morris / Our Today
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Amidst the nation being on the brink of a general election and with the start of the 2025/26 academic year in a matter of weeks, the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) has warned that Jamaica’s teachers could take industrial action if the government does not amend its wage offer to the nation’s 25,000 educators.
While speaking at the JTA’s 61st Annual Conference on Monday, August 18 at the Princess Grand Hotel in Green Island, Hanover, Mark Malabver, newly-installed President, JTA, rubbished the Ministry of Finance and the Public Services’ four-year offer of zero per cent in year one, followed by 2.5 per cent t in each of the following three years.
That offer was made during wage talks held on August 15, when JTA representatives walked out of a meeting with Minister of Finance and the Public Service Fayval Williams.
“It is the height of disrespect for the Government to have offered us zero per cent in year one and 2.5 per cent in each subsequent year. We boldly reject this proposal, and somebody needs to tell ‘Auntie Faye’ that zero per cent cannot buy a Probox,” the tough-talking Malabver said to the JTA delegates at the Conference on Monday.
He was referencing a widely-mocked comment made by Williams in March this year, when she suggested that a Jamaican could make a down payment on a Toyota Probox motor car by saving $2,000 per month over three years.
“All we ask is that we are paid a livable wage…this has nothing to do with politics, this has to do with the livelihood of 25,000 teachers who are drawn from across the length and breadth of this country. The leadership of the JTA is in no position at this time to guarantee normalcy going forward. The teachers are now more militant than ever, we are highly agitated, and we will not be insulted any longer,” he said.
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