On Tuesday it was like a two ring door chime, as soon as Luke Palacio and the BNTU issued a release complaining that the government was union busting because it has decided to give the teachers who did not strike an honorarium, it was closely followed by a release by the PUP with the same message. Both releases seemed to have been hammered out on the same computer and we wonder if it was not sent out of the same office. These days you cannot tell the difference between the BNTU and the PUP.
And while the line is very unclear between the two, what is clear is that Luke is now trying to appeal to the teachers who did not go on strike to somehow refuse the money. “We are saying based on principles, if you believed in the movement, you did not strike for any reason you were paid then the dignified thing to do was to say look, maybe I did not strike for a number of reasons; we got varied reasons why individuals did not go on strike, we are saying to them reject that money.”
You are reading right! Luke Palacio has told the teachers to reject the money. We are not certain of what individual, after having worked more than others would refuse any sort of monetary appreciation which is being offered to him or her. But what is more is what Luke continued saying. During an interview on the matter he stated as follows: “We believe our position is, was and continues to be that you are paying teachers who did not go on strike because you want to weaken the BNTU. The fact of the matter is that all teachers were paid, those teachers who did not go on strike for whatever reason were also paid and they were not working at school because most of those schools were closed and if they were open very very few children were at school. So what are we saying now, we’re going to pay people for doing nothing, simply because you want the BNTU to look bad?” Now if you read right, Luke is saying that teachers who did not work should not get paid. Now the questions is, when the teachers were on strike, were they working? Of course they were not, yet Luke and the Union went as far as taking the matter to court so that they get paid. Really does he think that people are fools? If you don’t work you should not get paid. By the same token if you work more than you should there should be some kind of honorarium for it!
