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Alexandra School – The Way Forward

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The wonderful sight of teacher and pupil reunited at the Alexandra School – Photo credit Barbados Advocate

It was evident to the most discerning when the Alexandra School issue reared its head – Alexandra School Dispute – Who Shall Lead The Children? – that the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) had reached the end of its tether fuelled by how past grievances were managed by the ministry of education. Many Barbadians became outraged that the ministry of education would have allowed the Alexandra dispute to become so protracted, six years and counting. Caswell Franklyn, Head of Unity Trade Union who possesses an above average knowledge of the workings of the public service posited that the – Alexandra School Impasse: [was] A Massive Failure Of Public Service Administration. He produced the PUBLIC SERVICE ACT 2007 – 41 with Amendment to support his view.

In fact when the BSTU departed from the heavily trodden path of grievance procedure and withheld labour which resulted in 30 Alexandra teachers on the picket line, acute discernment was unnecessary as to what was required. When the BSTU mobilized around a cry for the separation of Principal Broomes from the school it was obvious Houston had a problem. If that was not enough to spur all concerned into action, information revealed last week that the ministry of education was in possession of an inspection document for several months only served to confirm the lethargy and incompetence with which the fractured industrial relations climate at Alexandra Secondary School was allowed to descend.

Finally when a ministerial committee was constituted chaired by Minister of Education Ronald Jones, BU commentators knew it would have been in vain – “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”. The BSTU had travelled that road before and  was known to have lost confidence in Minister Ronald Jones. The Prime Minister would have to intervene which is consonant with how IR disputes are resolved in Barbados anyway.

After 20 days of strike action Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart finally intervened on the weekend. The objective was to get the striking teachers teachers back to work. He achieved the objective a result complimented by Caswell Franklyn.  It was obvious from early in the impasse – confirmed by Sir Roy Trotman after the Barbados Workers Union (BWU) gave its support to the BSTU – that there would be no perfect solution to the Alexandra dispute. Prime Minister Stuart got the teachers to return to work and more than hinted that the job of righting the wrongs at the school had to be started. It is regrettable that many Barbadians have not seen Stuart’s action for what it is i.e. getting the teachers back to the classroom.

BU agrees 100% with the Prime Minister that we live in a barbecue pig tail era where form too often seems to trump substance. Imagine BU’s surprise to hear President Walter Maloney expressing concern about the students being roped into the dispute. Why the hell did he not come out when it was happening and condemn it at that time? Why did Winston Crichlow, the head of the principals association feel constrain to comment after the Prime Minister got the teachers to return to the classroom, a prerequisite to moving the matter forward? Why did the Alexandra Parents Teachers feel they had to issue a statement to the press and demand that teachers and the ministry of education make an action plan available to them about making up the lost hours?

They all need to shut the hell up and allow Prime Minister to deliver what he has promised!

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394 responses to “Alexandra School – The Way Forward”

  1. ac Avatar
    ac

    @check it out i know you are trying to be objective.however you must not look alone to the report but in the weeks to come the overwhelming mountain of evidence that the teachers and the BSTU would be providing.it is going to be the totalarity of evidence that BROOMES is going to have a hard time defending

  2. David Avatar
    David

    Notice Arthur had a lot to say about the AX matter on the weekend. Doesn’t this grievance date back to his time in office?

  3. John Avatar
    John

    http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/arthur-ball-in-jones-court/

    I saw it

    …. all I can say is that Mr. Arthur does not like a row, he prefers a riot!!

    Lord have Mercy.

  4. ac Avatar
    ac

    To all those who are tring to muzzle the process by using words such as.”precedent” let me deflate your bubble your sense of reasoning ignores the basics rights and privilgesv an employee is due and was being trampled on by mr broomes however there is a loud message being sent to employers that such won,be tolerated at any level and the message is the correct one one that the employer should heed

  5. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    and John, it is also possible that the “careful” crafting of the report might also have been to hide the possibility that no such hard evidence of malfeance existed.

    Re. your 8.35 post. I had also noted that apparent timing last week but did not get around to commenting on it.

    It seems as if the alleged incident of insubordination that is at the heart of this current problem could have happened in 2008. i.e. Before the previous intervention of BSTU and its then strike action that was ostensibly settled by the MOE. The Inspection study, if I am correct in that deduction, received letters / memos (or at least copies thereof) submitted by the principal to the Teacher and to the MOE in October 2010. Therefore these letters existed at that time. Remember the new CEO said (quite truthfully, I am certain) that no such letters could be found in his office or at the MOE registry. However, He could not deny that such letters had been sent by the principal as he had the Inspection report that contained copies of the letter. In other words, The proof that the letters existed is in the Inspection report that all of us can see. Also Mr. broomes would have been engineering a deception, not just recently, but at least as far back as 2010.

    So what do we have here? Another incident of insubordination by the teacher? remember Caswell said that every day defying the principals order could be considered a new infraction. Or an old incident, in which case the question would be; is it that the principal was maliciously trying, at last year’s speech day, to put Mrs. Greaves on the spot for a 2008 problem that was most likely already adjudicated?

    These waters are muddy and will take some time to clean.

    Why didn’t the BSTU forcefully highlight that the speechday incident was an old adjudicated one?

  6. ac Avatar
    ac

    @ole oinion good morning i hope you have a good a day as mine.today is thestart of a new beginnig at AX for that we should thank The BSTU .

  7. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    I have been writing for some time that Jones should not hold the post as President of the BFA while he is a Minister in the B’dos Govt.. Arthur is right on this issue and I don’t understand why Freundel allowed him to continue the nonsense that David Thompson allowed, at least I could understand Thompson’s position Jones was loyal to him and he wanted to repay him for that loyalty. Freundel owes Jones nothing he should give him a choice …..President of the BFA or the back bench

  8. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    lemuel; Re. your 8.30 am post.

    There is no need to invoke the practice of mathematical “sets” in this matter. I think I conceded in the post that the report, in my view, using skewed responses to questions by some members of the various groups questioned, demonstrated that Mr. Broomes had problems with members of these groups. The report is flawed it this regard in that it did not take into account the opinions that were favourable to the principal byt selectively used the answers that cast him in a negative light.

    In the case of the teachers it was a very clearly defined sub-set of that group. Why didn’t they factor the dissenting voices into their highlighted conclusion?

    In the case of the BOD they presented arguable transgressions of the principal to condemn him without comment or even without checking whether or not the transgressions were true or not (Imagine, the major transgression was that he appeared calm in the face of all the problems).

    In the case of the students, there was no problem with the principal.

    In the case of the Management staff there were a few individual but not group problems with the principal.

    In the case of the Parents and PTA there were no problems.

    Given all this, how could the report, truthfully conclude as a proven fact, that the Principal had problems with all these groups?

    Why don’t you factor all those subsets in your mathematical computations?

  9. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    @ ac
    Thanks and a fine day to you too Daniel…I just feel great knowing those kids are studying again…I just thankful for our Hon PM Fruendel Stuart …

    Oh I am positive today.. unlike some people who are hell bent on a “circus and buying pig tails to BBQ.”
    They too will be silenced when they see the professional behavior that is been exhibited in Speightown right now as we speak.

    All will be well and David will soon have to re-introduce new meat for these vultures to pounce.

    As to Broomey.. he too go soften up ..just watch.

  10. Anon Avatar
    Anon

    @Check-ir-out “Also Mr. broomes would have been engineering a deception, not just recently, but at least as far back as 2010.”

    You find it impossible to believe this?

  11. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    Anon; re. your post above. I don’t know the man. I am not privy to the details that would substantiate this. I am only going by the published or disclosed facts.

    I find it unlikely but not impossible to believe.

    Bring the facts.

  12. John Avatar
    John

    The mother hens (male and female!) have back their chicks!!

    It will work out.

  13. redcarrake Avatar
    redcarrake

    Look the Prime Ministers comment about interlopers , comers-in etc was appropriate. I am still wondering why was the NUPW in this dispute.Is it that the heads don’t understand solidarity within the trade union movement. the BWU did the right thing ie join the workers in solidarity. BUT held a meeting of the Exec and remained on the fence by the way BWU also had a meeting of its Council, I might have missed it but I can’t remember the NUPW having such a meeting,if this was not the case, was Walter Maloney and Denis Clarke really speaking for the NUPW

  14. porridge-boy Avatar
    porridge-boy

    To skin a cat:

    Prime Minister Stuart as illustrated that there is more than one way to skin a cat sometimes, you need not go out of your way to get even with who you perceived as your enemy but you give that person enough time and that person will self-destruct .

    Strike (1) When the Prime Minister said to the Minister of Education Mr Ronal Jones take the independent institutional inspection of the school report and do all the things that is needed to be done base on the recommendations that was at his disposal for over nine months, he was saying to the Minister fix the problem get the impasse settle but the Minister misread his lips and therefore fail to carry out his assignment.

    Strike (2) The PM place at the disposal of the Minister a super pack of three in the form of two high ranking Ministers and a Senator to bring the individuals to the table so to bring a resolution to the matter he once again misread and failed. again cat dead.

    No wonder the PM took maters in his hands and showed how easy the task was to get the teachers back to the class rooms after the failures of one of his leading Minister, just by setting up stages.

    Stage one was successful would stage two, three and four be. As Minister Jones would say only God knows. Some one once said if you see a Minister close to a edge of a cliff don’t go near him, don’t turn a suicide in to a homicide.

  15. John Avatar
    John

  16. John Avatar
    John

    We can learn from the successes … and failures of other people.

    We don’t know it all.

  17. The Scout Avatar
    The Scout

    It is obvious the P.M don’t havea straight forward case against Mr Broome, because if it was a clear cut case against him, he would at lease sendhim on leave until he further investigate. it would be foolhardy on the P.M to believe that the striking teachers and the loyal teachers would embrave each other today on their return. Similarly, that the relationship between the principal would he cordial, the teachers would think they don’t have to do what he says. The duties of the principal CANNOT be deminished, or that is another case, therefore the wisest thing to do is to send him on leave as Bushie says and appoint a INDEPENDENT committee to investgate the entire problem, while getting information from ALL sectors. Any thing other than that will be bitter sweet for either of the groups and right now it looks like Mr Broomes is the one who will come out of this smelling like a rose, with a handsome paycheque

  18. ac Avatar
    ac

    We don,t have to know it all to treat people with decency and respect and this the bottom line missing from this recipe of lies and deceit apparantly broomes had never encountered or been taught i won,t be surprised if he was brought up in a household were the head exempliefied similiar characteristic.the apple does not fall from the tree

  19. The Scout Avatar
    The Scout

    What is going to happen if a section of the civil service is aggreived by one of their superiors and the NUPW take the same action BSTU took, will it be handled the same way? The NUPW, who was embarrassed by the P>M, is to meet with the government to discuss salary increases, what if the government cannot settle with them and the P.M legislates and the entire civil service refuse to accept the decision? I still maintain, the P.M has just open a can of worms that he cannot deal with. I don’t see him getting much support from those aggreived DLP M.P’s either.

  20. true to form Avatar
    true to form

    I think that the praise showered on the PM for the way he has done things is false praise. The things or the tools which the PM had were not the same tools which Jones had. Jones could not offer to go to stage 2 or 3 or 4 to solve this problem. He had to solve it in one fell swoop,he could not offer any sop when dealing with Broomes.. I think that Jones was dealing with the issue at hand, the public statement of the principal. The PM did not factor in the statement of the priincipal and is dealing with the institutional report of the committee which means that he has moved the goal posts and so the original point of the dispute is lost. Only the PM couold have offered the teachers stage 2 and it should be on thiese stages he should be judged. I think he pulled the carpet from under Jones and did so uncermoniously and for this Joes should have offerd the PM his instrument of appointment. The journey now start. the damage already done. Think on these things

  21. Solution Masta Avatar
    Solution Masta

    @ true to form

    Say it ..Jones just was dirtied linen ..they wanted nothing to do with him.
    stop pussy footing man……in bed with the wrong bedfellows .. and was found out .

  22. Micah Avatar
    Micah

    The BSTU had originally indicated that they were going on strike as they had requested to meet with the Chief Personnel Officer to discuss the issue of separation of Mr. Broomes from the school. They did not get the promise of such a meeting at that time by the CPO. It appears to me that the PM may have promised to faciliatate the steps which would have to be taken to separate Mr. Broomes, though we can only guess if he has said he would advocate for this, or would be hands- off and let the MOE, CPO, and the Public Service Commission do their work independently and objectively. I don’t think that the Inspection Report on the school was ever intended to be used for legal purposes, but was to provide a blueprint for action to be taken to deal with the issues at the school by the MOE. I am sure a lawyer could take apart that report, and state that it does not conclusively demonstrate that Mr. Broomes was so at fault in his performance as Prinicpal, that he should be terminated . I agree with others that there is probably a lot more information against Mr. Broomes waiting to be, or has been told, which along with the Inspection Report present a not too pretty picture.

  23. David Avatar
    David

    @Micah

    While what you say is true credence must be given to if as CEO the majority of the management does not have your confidence. In most private sector companies it will lead to the CEO being booted.

  24. John Avatar
    John

    What I remember about the 1968/9 strike is that we still had to go to school.

    There were no taught classes but supervision was still there in the form of a skeleton staff of teachers!!!

    Funny kind of strike that one was!!

    The teachers were on strike but school opened for business!!

    That’s why I say that the teaching profession is like no other and it is not possible to treat industrial action by teachers in the same way as industrial action in other places.

    A teacher’s loyalty is first to his/her students.

  25. Harry Mo Avatar
    Harry Mo

    Getting rid of Broomes is not going to solve the problems of wutless , badbehaved AX teachers or other teachers in the system. Prime Minister Stuart has done nothing to help and whatever it is he has done will have the reverse Midas Touch just like everything the DLP has done so far. What about the Eager 11 ? What about Estwick and the GUN issue ? Elections will be called this year 2012 and we looking for a fresh start —not with the DLP though

  26. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    John; Once again. What are your views on the strength of the report re. providing iron clad evidence for separating Broomes? It was the report that the PM acted on not the hearsay evidence I presume.

    Lemuel; Did you do the advanced maths on all the questions and answers listed in the report?

  27. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    David; re your 5.03 pm post.

    Most private sector companies would have had a proper independent report done by a professional. The Alexandra study was led by a Professor at UWI but the study team was a hodge podge of representatives of MOE, The BOD and the PTA. In addition, the report we have access to seems to indicate that it was put together, not by the Professor, but by an operative of the MOE.

    It was not intended for the purpose to which it is now being put by the PM.

    And, Who is management in the case of Alexandra? The BOD? The MOE? or the Alexandra Management Committee? Where is the evidence that these bodies, in their totality, had lost confidence in the Principal?

  28. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    Hi bloggers. I’m late to the party so I’ll do my homework and read back first. What I find interesting though is that the same people who cussed and criticised freundel for his “lethargy”, lack of proactiveness, laid back style, non-hands on approach and monday morning quarterbacking and lack of leadership now praise, adore and expect him to fully solve this situation with “dispatch” and to keep up to date, on top of it and involved day by day. Well well well. And those who exhorted the bstu for “breaking” process now demand that we wait while process is followed…I’ll comment on the other aspects after a quick read. Peace!

  29. David Avatar
    David

    @Checkit-out

    Didn’t the PM say he spoke to the Chairman of the Board as well?

    The PM has stated that the report has to be followed up on and that its findings concur with those of 14 members of the AX management team who were on strike.

    As mediator in the dispute it was his judgement call to make

    Time will judge if he was correct.

    On the other point modern private companies have performance management systems in place where through a process of periodic job appraisals HR issues are dealt with.

    It is rare for a private enterprise to recruit an outside to arbitrate in internal conflict. Perhaps you can expand on that point if you are being misinterpreted.

  30. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    Oops! In my post above re. the composition of the Study team for the inspection report i forgot to add that BSTU was also a member of the team. Given current happenings, with such a composition, would anyone be surprised if attempts were made to push certain agendas in the report?

  31. Random Thoughts Avatar
    Random Thoughts

    It seems to me that the report is written in very, very diplomatic language. But I expect that some of the teachers and others who have complained may well be willing to testify under oath if called upon to do so. Or as Uncle Jeff would say don’t let [me] them get vex now.

  32. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    David; You’re right! Modern Private sector companies would have internal systems for managing HR issues. I’m not quite certain what the process now is in Secondary Schools. I think that the CPO is the entity which would do the necessary in such cases (thereby the call for CPO’s intervention by BSTU and perhaps the avoidance of responding to that call by CPO) and I would hope that they have a functioning performance appraisal system for principals. Thus, as Caswell said, the ball should have been in CPO’s court from the beginning. Not MOE. And, it seems strange that MOE could be given latitude to take over a function that is properly that of one of the PM’s officers and even have that authority extended, as the PM seems to have indicated. As far as I know the CPO is in the PM’s slate of ministries and reports to him.

    But the Inspection report was however demonstrably not an HR report or an arbitration report. It was a general overall report on the functioning of the school. It could not have been intended to be used as a report to gauge the performance of the principal or some other individual entity at the school or arbitrate any problems discovered. The private sector, I am almost certain, would normally outsource a report that was analagous to the Alexandra inspection study to outside professional consultants and would get a professional report detailing what needed to be done to improve the output, profits or whatever was to be investigated for the particular entity being studied. As I’ve indicated above the Alexandra inspection report was done by a team headed by an external professor but comprising representatives of a number of interested entities including the BSTU in the study team. Surely a private sector study on an analagous matter would not include a representative from, say, the BWU, as an intimate part of a study team seeking to investigate and improve one of its component companies.

  33. Blogger2012 Avatar
    Blogger2012

    @Checkitout and Observer

    Have no fear, Mr, Broomes cannot and will not be touched, Mark my word. If they want to touch him they will have to pay him salary for the next 9 years and i am sure mr. smith is to0 willing to advise him. The BSTU has won nothing, the members are back to school and mr. borromes has not been separted from the school. Little Mary could not have achieved that task, and neither Unity.

  34. John Avatar
    John

    Checkit-Out | January 25, 2012 at 6:12 PM |

    John; Once again. What are your views on the strength of the report re. providing iron clad evidence for separating Broomes? It was the report that the PM acted on not the hearsay evidence I presume.

    Lemuel; Did you do the advanced maths on all the questions and answers listed in the report?
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    It is kind of unrealistic to expect a member of the public to try to reach any conclusion based on the set of facts available. Maybe we should all shut up, me included but we can’t. This txperience hits close to home.

    I am pretty sure the fatcs are incomplete.

    The man making the decisions has far more facts at his disposal plus the facility of being able to hear from the people involved face to face. Having read the report and listened he gets to judge what is the truth.

    Most of what I have said is conjecture based on my life experiences and beliefs which may or may not be supportable by the complete set of facts.

    One thing I can say without fear of contradiction is that no teacher worth his or her salt will let harm befall a student if he or she can prevent it. I take that as a given.

    I start my logic from that premise and then try to fit the observable facts to some sort of theory.

    At one point I thought that 22 teachers were teaching and 30 were not. Then I realised this is not really an observable fact.

    If there are 800 students and 22 teachers are teaching out of a compliment of 52 then there must be getting up to 500 students running around the school unsupervised …… or they were put to sit down and told not to move!!

    This is impossible.

    Either there are no students at the school in which case no teaching is being done or the 22 teachers are supervising all of the 800 students while their fellow teachers are out.

    That is a fit with what I remember of 1968/9 one of my life experiences.

    It means the 30/22 split does notnecessarily mean a split in the thinking of the teaching staff.

    Again, who says the 22 staff that remained “off strike” are the same ones everyday!!

    The basic premise I started from would tell me that in all likelihood they are not!!

    So maybe the teaching staff in 2012 are no longer apparently divided as suggested by the report of 2010/11.

    I am sure you can come up with a different explanation because all the facts are not available ….. nor should they be!!

  35. John Avatar
    John

    OOPS, sorry, my tenses are off!!

    Living in the past.

    Every now and a gain I have to remind myself this is the present.

    The past is past.

  36. Bin Laden Avatar
    Bin Laden

    Shut up before… I take liar BROOMES….now listen
    THIS MORE IMPORTANT

    Iran preparing now for Armageddon
    Select fighters being described as ‘Soldiers of Imam Mahdi’
    Published: 21 hours ago

    By Reza Kahlili

    Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has held several secret meetings with his economic and military advisers in recent days to prepare for the possibility of war with the United States.

    Sources report the preparations are to include the execution of those Iranians who oppose the regime.

    Khamenei has been heard to say that the coming of the last Islamic Messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam Mahdi, is near and that specific actions need to be taken to protect the Islamic regime for upcoming events.

    Mahdi, according to Shiite belief, will reappear at the time of Armageddon.

    Selected forces within the Revolutionary Guards and Basij reportedly have been trained under a task force called “Soldiers of Imam Mahdi” and they will bear the responsibility of security and protecting the regime against uprisings. Many in the Guards and Basij have been told that the 12th Imam is on earth, facilitated the victory of Hezbollah over Israel in the 2006 war and soon will announce publicly his presence after the needed environment is created.

    According to SepahOnline, sources within the Vali’eh Amr, the revolutionary forces in charge of the supreme leader’s protection, report that Khamenei held several meetings in recent days at which the leader instructed his advisers to tighten the grip on anyone who opposes or might oppose the regime in case of war.

    These actions include investigations of every person or group that was pro-regime but now hold opinions contrary to regime policies. Also being created is a list, to be presented to Khamenei, to decide the fate of any opponents.

    It also was decided that those political prisoners who will not repent will be executed, the sources said.

    This action also was taken by the founder of the Islamic regime in 1988, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

    In the book, “A Time to Betray,” it is documented when Khomeini announced the campaign, he said, “If the person at any stage or at any time maintains his (or her) support for the opposing groups, the sentence is execution. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately.”

    The fatwa led to the execution of thousands of innocent men and women of all ages in a very short period.

    The list of actions by Khamenei includes investigation of private business owners. If records show that at any time in the past they have not supported the Islamic regime, their businesses and belongings could be confiscated.

    Journalists, writers and publishers who are deemed to be against the regime would be arrested and punished. Even high religious authorities who do not fully support Khamenei will be put under surveillance and dealt with if they become outspoken about the direction of the country.

    Several journalists already have been arrested in the past week. In a recent speech, Khamenei hinted of a warlike environment and warned those clerics who might doubt his direction of the country that their survival is tied to the survival of the Islamic regime. Many Iranians who resent the regime resent the religion it promotes, so even opposition clerics might not fare well should the regime fall.

    The plan by the leader calls for total control of Tehran, the capital where the presence of the Basij and Hezbollah militias would be quite visible so that no one would dare to challenge the regime.

    This news comes in light of the formation of the “Removal Committee,” which secretly would eliminate all deemed as opponents, even within the military and the government.

    Khamenei’s extraordinary measures are based either on an understanding that war could be imminent or that the regime has decided to announce it has nuclear capability and is getting ready for a possible reaction from Israel or America.

    Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, an influential cleric and a radical Twelver, previously had stated that Khamenei ascends to the sky every year to take direction from Imam Mahdi, and sources close to the cleric have disclosed that Khamenei has been ordered by Imam Mahdi to continue with the nuclear program despite worldwide objection as it will facilitate his coming.

    Last March, a Iranian secret documentary, “The Coming Is Upon Us,” was revealed to depict Khamenei as the mythical figure who creates the environment for the reappearance of Mahdi by leading Iran to destroy Israel.

  37. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Waittttttttttttttttttttttttttt ???

  38. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    @hmm
    food for thought.

    Question for all, I’ll start with the labour relation aspect. The BSTU have repeatedly said they invoked the “MAY” clause with respect to dispute resolution. Given recent comments I’m forced to ask two questions to start….(1) Who is the dispute with (Broomes / MEHR / MOE)? and (2 – again) Is withdrawal of labour, statement of an ultimatum and determination of who should adjudicate a reasonable method of alternative dispute resolution?

    I’ll move on to management next.

  39. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    Yes, Bin Laden. Alexandra and its problems, are red ant bites as compared to the possible repercussions of the article you linked. Hope America and its allies see the light and realise that their policies might be leading us headlong to the real Dec 23rd 2012 Armageddon.

  40. Random Thoughts Avatar
    Random Thoughts

    Bin Laden.

    Stay de’a nuh.

    So those idiots in the Middle East ready to fight each other (again)

    This is important?

    So what else is new?

    They were fighting each other befoe we were born and they will be fighting each other long after we are dead.

  41. Random Thoughts Avatar
    Random Thoughts

    Stupid old men in dresses.

  42. The Scout Avatar
    The Scout

    I think Mary Mary is quite contrary, she has been fooled by the P.M. That report is an old report, had Mr Broomes not made the remarks about the disobedient teacher, that report would not have surfaced now; you cannot then penalise a person off a report submitted months ago,plius without having any dialouge with the person. As I’ve stated before if the P.M “separates Mr Broomes from the school, he will have to give him a better job, higher pay, and that would be to Mr Broomes benefit. In addition, while the MOE can have observers at the school, they CANNOT give instructions to any one , not even the ancillary staff, without Mr Broomes’ permission.The P.M has not only fooled the BSTU but he has played right into Mr Broomes’ hands. If there is anyone who has lost so far, it is the BSTU, their mandate, they were not going back to the school until Mr Broomes is separated, but look, they are back and he is still their. I’ve said, they will eat humble pie and they are enjoying it , tricked by the P.M

  43. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    John; I’m really disappointed in your post at 7.58 pm. It does not appear to be up to your usual high analytical standard. Perhaps you should scratch it and try again.

  44. The Scout Avatar
    The Scout

    I’ve been listening and my P.M was so engaged in promoting himself and the BSTU, yet I’ve not heard him praise and thank those AX techers who stood on the job and tried to assist the students. Mr P.M your slip is not showing, it is off and you tail is exposed.

  45. Checkit-Out Avatar
    Checkit-Out

    The Scout; For what very little its worth. I think Mary Redman is an astute, fearless, competent, committed and intelligent Trade Unionist. I think she might be the one who did the “tricking” and got the PM to give rock solid assurances which he might not now be able to deliver on with dispatch as harsh reality sets in. But who knows? Perhaps a high value inducement for his retirement fund may be too attractive for the Principal to refuse and might be worth it as a face saving gesture for the other party. If that happens with dispatch it will be a win-win situation for the PM and Mary.

    By the way, Caswell’s posts about Mr. Broomes frequently mentions Politics of Inclusion in relation to Mr. Broomes. is he a DLP member?

  46. JUST ASKING Avatar
    JUST ASKING

    IS it true that a certain person of interest was Mary Redman’s “boyfriend” in the past ??

    IS it true that he was her main squeeze ??
    WILL we hear wedding bills sometime ???

    JUST ASKING
    JUST ASKING
    JUST ASKING

  47. John Avatar
    John

    The Scout | January 25, 2012 at 9:14 PM |

    I’ve been listening and my P.M was so engaged in promoting himself and the BSTU, yet I’ve not heard him praise and thank those AX techers who stood on the job and tried to assist the students. Mr P.M your slip is not showing, it is off and you tail is exposed.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    There you go ……. possible observable fact…….. one of omission ……..

    Sometimes its what is not said than what is that needs to be “listened” for!!!!!

    ….. and then there is the issue of payment …..

    All the teachers should be paid as normal as though there was no “withholding” of labour ……. my belief and straightforward logic.

    We will wait and see how that unfolds but it looks as though the Government will do the right thing here too.

  48. John Avatar
    John

    Sometimes it’s more what is not said than what is that needs to be “listened” for!!!!!

  49. David Avatar
    David

    @Checkit-out

    Submitted on 2012/01/25 at 7:26 PM

    You are correct. We will have to wait ti see how this matter plays out.

  50. Blogger2012 Avatar
    Blogger2012

    @Checkitout

    I concur with u, such a report comprising representative of BSTU can serve no useful purpose as vested interest was present on the inestigation team. Any time a report is to be done of such importance, professionals who would not have a vested intersst and whose professional reputation would be at stake should be involved. Nevertheless, thats how investigations are undertaken in the service.

    I know some years ago a performance measuring tools was to supposed to have been pilot in schools but i dont know the staus of that. By the way, when I used to work in the private sector, there was really a perfromance measuring tool as such, i am told that the gove was supposed to have introduced some prds system, whereby out can be measured, but i think that is still in incubation stage, Firstly, one would have to know the desired ouputs, the time it should take to produce such outputs and the methodolgies to be used to achieve the stated objectives, Futher, the lenght of time required to produce the activity. can such be easily achieved in a system, where people aim to do as little as possible and take as long as possible to do it, How so u change such a culture?

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