KNUT TOP OFFICIALS TO MEET ON SUNDAY OVER STRIKE Last updated on 14 Jul 2013 00:00 By Standard Reporter NAIROBI, KENYA: The national executive committee of Kenya National Union of Teachers, Knut, will meet today to take stock of the ongoing teachers strike that has paralysed learning activities for the past three weeks. Knut chairman Wilson Sossion said that the NEC, the union’s supreme organ “will assess progress of the strike and review the offer that the government has put on the table.” The meeting comes three weeks after teachers went on strike to compel the government to honour a 1997 deal that will increase their commuter, medical and housing allowances. The government has since disowned the 1997 agreement saying it had been nullified by a 2003 agreement, a position the union contests. The union has rejected a government offer of Sh17 billion. End the stalemate “The government is trying to be mischievous. The agreement is still valid. The government will be setting a very bad precedent if it were to disown binding agreements simply because they were signed by other regimes. Will the current regime now start disowning international agreements because it did not sign them?” said Mr Sossion. Asked whether progress is being made to end the stalemate, Mr Sossion was noncommittal but said that negotiations were going on. “A lot has being going on than have been reported in the media.” The strike will go down as one of the longest since Knut first went on strike in 1962 to press for increased salaries and better terms for its members. The longest strike on record so far was in October 2002 when teachers downed their chalks demanding full implementation of their salary increases under the 1997 agreement. The government has used every available tactic to break the strike including instituting contempt of court proceedings against Knut officials for declining to heed a court order On Friday President Uhuru Kenyatta called on teachers to call off the strike and return to the negotiations table, a call that like others before it, has gone unheeded. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 02:53:35 +0000
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