TTUTA gears up for mass protests

Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­[email protected]

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) is mov­ing to­wards a mass ral­ly, even as teach­ers across the coun­try con­tin­ue to wear red in protest over the de­lay in the pay­ment of new salaries.

TTUTA pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe yes­ter­day said the es­ca­la­tion fol­lows dis­cus­sions held on Wednes­day be­tween the union and Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) Daryl Din­di­al, re­gard­ing the long-out­stand­ing is­sue of salary ad­just­ments for all mem­bers of the teach­ing ser­vice.

He said the union still has no clear time­line for when teach­ers will be paid.

Ashe re­called that TTUTA signed an agree­ment with the State in April 2025, af­ter which a promise was made that new salaries would be paid by Ju­ly 2025.

That com­mit­ment, he said, was nev­er ful­filled.

He added that dur­ing a meet­ing with the CPO on De­cem­ber 10, 2025, TTUTA was again as­sured that “all mem­bers of the Teach­ing Ser­vice” would re­ceive their new salaries in Jan­u­ary 2026.

How­ev­er, new in­for­ma­tion pro­vid­ed by the CPO on Wednes­day con­firmed that the salaries will not be paid by the end of Jan­u­ary.

Ashe ex­plained that fol­low­ing a meet­ing be­tween Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo and the CPO on the same day, the CPO was in­struct­ed to sub­mit ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion to the Min­istry of Fi­nance by month’s end be­fore pay­ments could be au­tho­rised.

“At this time, there is no clear time­line for the pay­ment of new salaries to mem­bers of the Teach­ing Ser­vice,” Ashe said.

De­scrib­ing the sit­u­a­tion as bla­tant dis­re­spect to ed­u­ca­tors, Ashe said TTUTA will con­tin­ue to press its case through sev­er­al ac­tions.

These in­clude ed­u­ca­tors na­tion­wide con­tin­u­ing to wear red un­til the new salaries are re­flect­ed on their payslips; the on­go­ing writ­ing of let­ters, in­clud­ing to the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, seek­ing clar­i­ty on what in­for­ma­tion the CPO is re­quired to sub­mit and a de­fin­i­tive pay­ment date; and the roll­out of a so­cial me­dia cam­paign to sen­si­tise the pub­lic.

He said the union will al­so seek per­mis­sion to host a mass ral­ly of ed­u­ca­tors to high­light the is­sue and ap­ply fur­ther pres­sure.

“The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion stands res­olute in its ob­jec­tive of pro­vid­ing the best pos­si­ble rep­re­sen­ta­tion for its mem­ber­ship,” Ashe said, adding that TTUTA re­mains com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing teach­ers re­ceive what has al­ready been agreed to and promised.