TEACHERS ARE HURTING, PRESIDENT SAYS

ATU President Emma Ferguson (l) with Teacher Indah Leiba (1st Vice President)

She made the statement while explaining why they did not attend a joint meeting with the Civil Service Association called by Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes, last week.

Mr. Hughes, who explained that he wanted to speak with Government workers on matters of general concern, said he was insulted by the teachers’ refusal to attend the meeting.
Ms. Ferguson said the Teachers’ Union members were alarmed by a press release from the President of the Anguilla Civil Service Association, and one from the Chief Minister, about the issues for discussionwhich were not what they wanted to discuss.

“My teachers felt emphatically that,as we look forward to 2012, we wanted to know what state we were in financially; what were the implications for us as builders, moulders and shapers of the nation,” she stated. “As we are called as educators, we wanted to make sure that when we sit in an audience with the Chief Minister that we are able to line out things that are affecting us, yet we are still called to produce.

“We indicated that at the meeting, on that platform, we were not going to be given the chance to identify our issues; so we decided collectively – myself along with the Executive Board and our membership – that we will schedule another meeting, make sure we are together, and we will then invite him [the Chief Minister] to our meeting so that he could come and address the issues of the nation.

“It was never our intention to insult him but, as intelligent adults, and currently voters, we have the right to decide what meeting we want to attendbecause it was not a meeting called on Government time. Even if I had showed up as President, my membership had the right not to, but my members said, boldly, I can say, that this was not the way they wanted things to flow; they did not want to be a part of that right now. They wanted to be clear on our points and then we would invite the Honourable Chief Minister, Mr. Hughes, and his technocrats, to a meeting for us to say these are our concerns. That meeting on Tuesday, January 3, was not the setting. To say that we insulted him, we did not. Mr. Hughes knows where we stand. I talked to him prior to the meeting. It was not our intent to insult him. We do respect him, but that meeting was not the setting for us to attend.”
Ms. Ferguson was asked about some of the concerns of the teachers.She responded: “As quietly as it is kept, and as proud as we are as a people of Anguilla, teachers are hurting. Nothing has changed from June last year when we met with the Chief Minister and his technocrats. We understand that we have to budget the nation, but we also understand that some of our teachers are losing homes, some are losing cars, some are losing sleep, and some are seeking second jobs because we cannot make it; and others are having difficulties feeding their children…

“Whether or not he can do anything about it, he should at least give the people an opportunity to cry…To tell us that he is not going to listen, or talk to us, is unacceptable. If the people of Anguilla trust us enough to manage and mould their children from 8.25 – 3 o’clock, then we are worthy and intelligent enough to manage our own personal lives.”

Ms. Ferguson declared that teachers were now on the poverty list. “In 2010 we finished the [Country]Poverty Assessment. Less than six months after we finished that document, we got a whole new class of poverty – the working class poverty,” she stated, and referred to a number of new taxes which the people of Anguilla were now required to pay.

“My people were very upset to read in the minutes from Executive Council that the Chief Minister…asked for a refund of money for phone bills twelve years ago – ahead of my time, I must clarify,” she went on. “But yet you can’t pay us our money now for two years. You want to go back twelve years and you refuse to go back two years for us! It doesn’t sound good to the Anguilla public when you tell me you have a surplus but can’t give me my money. Yet you passed in Council to pay somebody 10,000 US – 27,000 EC – to be a lawyer to figure out a loophole not to pay me. You don’t think people are upset?…”

The Teachers’ Union President was referring to a decision in the Executive Council, in December, for Lawyer Anthony Astaphan of Dominica to advise on the implications of discontinuing the deferred payments to public servants and other Government officials. The matter is in relation to salary deductions made over two years ago.

“This is unacceptable. When we are grooming people’s children, we are grooming future leaders.” Ms. Ferguson stressed “My people told me, ‘Teacher Emma, we don’t want to hear any talk about any independence [from the Chief Minister]. We want to hear what the financial situation is. We are concerned about how not passing the budget is going to affect us.”’
Replying to the Chief Minister’s statement indicating that he no longer wished to meet with the teachers, Ms. Ferguson said: “Protocol says that I have a right to call on him, and I am going to use that right. I am not taking it personal, but we have a voice. It isn’t that we are against the Chief Minister. We are not working against him.We are just exercising our right about what we should participate in. I am really displeased.

“I indicated to him that I will put our concerns in writing, and I will ask to present them to him live; and when we do that we will invite the media,” she said. “It is not Emma speaking. It is Ms. Ferguson, the ATU President, and she can only speak according to her membership.”

Told that she appeared to have a lot of courage, she replied: “That is why the members elected me. Maybe I am a mini female of Mr. Hughes. God gave me holy boldness. I hope, desire and aim to walk with integrity before my people. The type of President you are makes you speak what the body says, whether you agree or disagree with it, but my people have spoken.

“They want to get their issues out. We don’t want to get stuck on dollars and cents everyday, but the reality is that we need to know where we stand.Our ancestors have fought in the revolution for such a time as this. The Anguilla Teachers’ Union is in its 50th year. Persons ahead of me…set up this union for such a time as this. I just happen to be the woman in the front seat who has to walk that path for such a time as this.”