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The presence of police ranks was very evident at the front entrance of the University of Guyana (UG) yesterday morning, as scores of workers congregated there to continue industrial action to retaliate to aWorkers of the University of Guyana line the sides of the thoroughfare leading to the entrance of the University of Guyana.breakdown of negotiations for improved salaries and other benefits.The industrial action took the form of a picketing exercise. And even if there were plans to blockade the entrance thereby prohibiting people from entering the Turkeyen campus grounds, as was the case last week Monday, the presence of the police ranks ensured that this did not occur.But according to President of the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA), Dr. Mellissa Ifill, blocking the entrance was certainly not on the agenda for yesterday. UG Vice Chancellor Professor, Jacob Opadeyi, had last week deemed the blockade as unlawful.“We didn’t plan to block the entrance. We said that we would congregate here…” asserted Dr. Ifill. She said, “The (UG) Administration clearly misinterpreted what we said and sent for the police…Our plan is to stand here and register our dissatisfaction and disgust and try to persuade the Administration to treat its workers justly.”She said that a decision was made to assume full strike action although the initial intent was a sit-in. While with the sit-in workers were encouraged to go to work as usual but not undertake any of their normal duties the strike action, Dr. Ifill explained, is one that discouraged them from going to work altogether.The University Administration has threatened to deduct pay from the workers’ salaries for each day that the protest continues. But the workers will not relent, Dr. Ifill insisted yesterday. As such, she noted that while some workers were on the picketing line yesterday several others were at home.“We said to members since they (the Administration) are not going to pay you save your money and stay home. But those of us who are out here today to picket and to, in a sense, see those who are going in (to work) and to hopefully try to persuade them that it would be in all of our best interest to stay out,” said Dr. Ifill.But there weren’t too many to be persuaded, she added. “We are very peaceful in what we do; we have always been very peaceful,” added the UGSSA PresidentLengthy disputeAccording to Dr. Ifill while there have been reports to suggest that the University Unions – the UGSSA and the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU)— have been acting outside of due procedure, this could not be the case.“If we have an Administration that says it is withdrawing an offer made and that it categorically will not speak with us unless we return to work knowing full well that we have been on industrial action for two weeks, and negotiated with us even while we were on industrial action…I would interpret that as a breakdown,” insisted Dr. Ifill.Elaborating on the need for the industrial action recourse, she explained that the on-going dispute is not new since it started since December of 2011. The state of affairs, she recalled, exploded in February 2012. It also saw industrial action being engaged then.At that time, the UGSSA President said that the Minister of Labour had called in the Unions to broker an agreement for the resumption of duty. Part of that agreement, Dr. Ifill said, was that wages and salaries would be negotiated within a month of the Unions’ submission of a Memo of Demands.According to Dr. Ifill, “We submitted our Memo of Demands in May of 2012, we are now in February of 2015 and last week Wednesday, is the first time that we have received a counter offer from the University based on the Memo of Demands we had submitted since May of 2012.”Reflecting on the Minister’s intervention back in 2012, Dr. Ifill said that item (7) of the Memo of Demands was singled out. “If we did not come to some kind of settlement that the Ministry would mediate in the matter,” it stated.This was a promise that was made to us by the Ministry because the Minister said “go back to work, go through the process’ and we have been through the process for close to three years.”Dr. Ifill said, too, that the Unions therefore have plans to write to both the President and the Minister of Labour to intervene in the existing state of affairs.And according to her, the Unions will not be deterred by reports in some sections of the media that the Labour Minister will not intervene in the on-going standoff.“We will be taking our letter to the Minister and we will let him know and we will attach the agreement that he asked his Chief Labour Officer to sign committing the Ministry to intervene in this dispute if we were unable to meet a settlement,” said Dr. Ifill.Also commenting on recent reports which suggested that the Minister is disinterested in intervening in the matter, UGWU President, Mr Bruce Haynes, questioned whether the University’s issue was not being deemed important.“Is the University of Guyana not critical? They intervened in the GGMC, intervened in the Sugar Industry,” said Haynes as he emphasised the need for Labour Minister, Nanda Gopaul, to take a neutral stance on the matter.“He cannot take a position, it is an industrial action and (the Minister) needs to bring closure to it,” said Haynes. He suggested that a suitable tactic should have been the Minister calling in the concerned parties to discuss a possible resolution.Sourcing needful fundsLast week, the University through its Negotiating Team had proposed a multi-year pay increase package that would translate to workers receiving a five per cent increase this year, 10 per cent in 2016 and 10 per cent in 2017.The workers have however rejected this proposal since it is merely a fraction of the 60 per cent across the board that they were asking for. The Unions have since altered their proposal asking for a minimum 25 per cent increase over the three-year period under consideration.However, because of the continued industrial action the Vice Chancellor, via a statement last week, informed the Unions that the Negotiating Team has withdrawn its proposed package and will not continue discussions until the workers return to work.But the Unions are maintaining that their initial proposal could be afforded the workers. According to Dr. Ifill, even the Vice Chancellor has shared his optimism that through the Government the needed monies could be injected into the University.She said that when the Unions had first met with the Vice Chancellor he had presented them with a form that had a column labelled “remit”. Remit, as explained by the VC, Dr. Ifill said, meant that the Administration would have to go to the Government because the University did not have the money to pay.“The Vice Chancellor had even suggested percentages that the University could pay versus what the Government could pay to satisfy our demands…we had even asked the Vice Chancellor if we could use this form for negotiation purposes. So I don’t understand what the Vice Chancellor is doing,Nike Air Max Shoes Sale,” intimated Dr. Ifill.“Is he trying to suggest to us that he has failed in his task to convince and persuade the Government to inject some much needed funds into the University? Is that what he is admitting that the University doesn’t have money and funds can only come from the University? That wasn’t the understanding that we had based on the conversation (we had) with the Vice Chancellor as late as December 17 or 18 (2014) when we met with him,” added Dr. Ifill.Way forwardThe on-going industrial action is slated to continue until tomorrow and according to Dr. Ifill, “We are hopeful that we will get some kind of intervention from the President or the Minister of Labour.”But should both the President and Minister refuse to intervene, staffers will take decisions that are in their best interest, added the UGSSA President.  “I don’t know what those decisions would be, but those decisions would be made collectively by staff. We will make some kind of decision by Wednesday and communicate same to the Administration,” she added.And according to Haynes in light of the fact that the protesting action is likely to have a “telling” impact on workers, efforts have already been streamlined to cater to some of their needs. “We are getting people from overseas and even some locally involved in our relief effort because we recognised that we need to have that,” said Haynes who noted that the main focus is being directed on ensuring that workers have essential items to ensure their livelihood.“We are making a list of all our members and we are going to prioritise so we will deal with those most vulnerable and then we will deal with the less vulnerable after. So if it is going to be a long haul we are ready,” asserted Haynes.