Submitted by P Seale
For a long time I have been annoyed by the things I have been hearing about the BUT. Teachers are being badly treated by the ministry and the union has been doing nothing about it. Since being elected the president is silent on the key issues he was pushing to be on the agenda and I do not know if the union still functions.
In 2011 there were people making claims with the BUT health plan who paid no premiums. Some of them were friends of executive members and there was no charges after the audit. The broker made payments to Sagicor and never provided the union with any details. President Karen Best said the plan was over $300,000 in arrears. Sagicor later agreed to write off the arrears. Over $30,000 went missing from the office too. After I heard that, I got health insurance with Guardian.
I know the union saved thousands of dollars last year. There was annual conference on Zoom, no CUT travel, a scaled down Teachers Week and no Christmas luncheon last year. As a member, I hope the treasurer is keeping a close eye on the coffers. She should mind how much money they are paying the brothers of the president to spruce up the union.
In June, Mr. Shepherd wanted Mr. Spencer to have Zoom meetings to hear our views. He made that clear in the BUT Facebook group. Now Mr. Shepherd is president he doesn’t see the need to meet with us to hear our views any more.
Mr. Shepherd seconded the no-confidence motion Dwane Goddard brought against Mr. Spencer last year. Twenty people signed. Half of them work with Mr. Shepherd at Wilkie or were named Shepherd.
- Mr. Goddard should explain why he had agreed to let his church friends raise funds for his eye surgery in 2019. In the first place he always knew the eye surgery was free.
- He should also explain why he was leaving Arthur Smith every week to do CTUSAB business when he had no business at CTUSAB. The ministry should look into that.
I am upset that these type of people lead or have been leading my union. They lack integrity.
On the back of that, we have a minister who treats us just like Ronald Jones but sounds better. The minister will blame COVID and nobody cares about us teachers.
The union has said nothing about appointments since the amendments to the Public Service Act. Are the officers all appointed? Is it because the officers all appointed?
The president spoke about the 11+ date. What about CXC and the secondary school issues? The BUT is a primary school teachers’ union again.
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