And while the BNTU will bring out their members tomorrow for the second half of the budget, their industrial action doesn't end there.
Today, they publicised an April 15th letter - which had been sent to the Minister informing him that they will strike starting Monday, April 26th.
This means walking out of the classrooms that have just barely opened a week and a half ago. But Smith told us that while it impacts the students, it also teaches them to stand up and stand strong for what they believe in. And she told us that the decision to strike was made by the overwhelming majority of the union's members.
Elena Smith - President, BNTU "When we met with them and when we did the survey, there were very vocal in terms of what they want us to do as a union and while they wanted for us to start taking action. So, we had to explain to them that there's a process that we go through as unions when we take industrial action. So that was a bit difficult for us to be able to get across to everybody, it will take some time and we will have to do some planning, nonetheless based on the survey we did the plans based on what they had requested. So, we saw them out, due to the situation at hand, the pandemic and restrictions, we can't be out there as we would normally do and so you will see us in smaller groups but still trying to get our message across as best as we can with all the restrictions. We continue without activities tomorrow and then we meet up on Monday and on Monday we have already informed the ministry, so they are aware of what we are going to be doing, we have copied that letter to management as well as they are aware and we did for the simple fact that we want to continue to take our actions but so responsibly, so then that our parents and our school administrators would know ahead of time what is that we would be doing. So, on Monday there's going to be a walk off and that walk and that is how we are going to beginning our days of strike."
And Smith says her members are in it for the long haul because giving up is simply not an option.
Elena Smith "We might be the only ones who are brave enough to stand up and say listen, we have to fight for this country because if we don't then there will be nothing for the children we are teaching right now, so we have to teach our children that you have to fight for your country. If you love your country, you will fight for it, so we are prepared to go the long haul and they are not giving up so easily and they have said from the beginning and we have told them on certain terms, especially our teachers, we have said to them our teachers will not move unless we address the matter of UNCAC and these legislations and coming to tell me that we will do so 6 months down the road is not satisfactory to our teachers because you have been waiting for this position for 13 years, you would have been preparing for this position for 13 years and you would think that coming in after 13 years, walking beside us when were fighting for good governance, when we were fighting against corruption, being there with us, joining our marches, knowing our sentiments, knowing what it is we were fighting for, one would think that upon getting the job now, that those would have been some of the 1st things that they would have dealt with. Unfortunately, they still need time to do that based on what they are saying and so our people are saying listen, there's no time."
