Windhoek
The Teachers Union of Namibia (TUN) has threatened government with a crippling nationwide strike that will halt learning if government fails to meet their demands by next Monday.
And the Namibia National Teachers’ Union (Nantu), the exclusive bargaining unit, has given government until Monday for further consultation involving Cabinet.
Teachers initially demanded a 12 percent increase across the board but for the 2016/2017 financial year government offered a 10 percent increment for grades 15 to 13, five percent for grades 12 to five and four percent for grades four to one A.
However, both TUN and Nantu teachers rejected the offer, saying it is an insult as they deemed the amount as too little.
Last month, the prime minister’s office announced that the proposed 5 percent increase had been accepted by the other recognised bargaining union, Namibia Public Workers’ Union (Napwu), whose members have received their increases.
TUN vice-president Ndjizuvee Haakuria said the union is ready to radicalise teachers and will support any good action that will culminate in their prosperity.
“We would like to remind the government not to forget its history lesson and remember the very successful teachers’ strike of 2012,” he said at a press conference in the capital yesterday.
Haakuria urged government to be serious in the upcoming meeting and to respect the wishes and demands of teachers.
The unionist said the issue of drought being put forward by government as reason for not accepting the demands of teachers is not acceptable.
“Namibia has a dependency ratio of 69.6 (LFS 2014) – this means roughly that ten working Namibians support seven non-working vulnerable Namibians (0-4 years and 65+), and this is the group that is severely affected by the drought,” he said.
He said that, therefore, increasing teachers’ salaries would help in mitigating the impact of the drought, thus making the drought a very good motivator for salary increments.
He said government continues to engage in unproductive expenditure such as construction of new office buildings amidst the drought. Haakuria said it is inconceivable that government expects teachers to understand its position, while it shows behaviour that does “not seem to support its expressed position”.
According to him teachers in rural areas are living in makeshift houses that they have constructed themselves, while in urban centres teachers can barely afford decent housing due to skyrocketing property prices created by “artificial demand and accelerated urbanisation rates”.
“This situation is turning our teachers into squatters and tenants, therefore increasing their salaries will restore their dignity,” he said.