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Teachers give govt ultimatum of 22 days
2008-02-07 09:22:43
By Correspondent Austin Beyadi
The Tanzania Teachers Union (CWT) announced yesterday it would stage a nationwide strike if the government would fail to pay its members arrears, amounting to 9.5bn/- within 22 days.
The union, whose members until recently stood at 156,923 (approximately 76 per cent of all the teachers in the country), claimed that the reasons for calling the strike had been prompted by the government`s failure to pay them accumulated health and leave allowances, cost of upgrading skills and salary increments after promotion.
Addressing a press conference in Dar es Salaam, the union`s President, Gratian Mukoba, said if the government failed to pay the teachers by the end of this month, the union would issue a 60-day notice of the intended teachers` strike and that after its expiry, they would strike indefinitely until all arrears were paid.
He directed leaders of the union in districts and regions across the country to make sure that the government paid the teachers within the 22-day ultimatum, or else he would call a ballot strike to be supervised by labour officers in each district.
Regarding the apparent contradiction on the total amount of arrears, Mukoba faulted the government pronouncement that the amount due was only 8.75bn/- and not 9.5bn/-, saying the union did not accept it on grounds that it did not include some teachers` arrears.
He said the union would not tolerate tendencies by the government of accumulating teachers` arrears.
``This is why in our annual general meeting in Arusha last month we unanimously agreed to declare a labour dispute with the government,`` he said.
Over 3 million pupils are likely to be affected if the teachers will go on strike.
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