Dear Colleagues,
The Leadership of the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers is unphased by our nation’s Prime Minister’s diatribe towards the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers most recent industrial action.
Be minded, as of March 2025, to the commencement of our present industrial action, the Executive of the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers issued several missives to the requisite authorities registering our union’s intent to engage in industrial action if all outstanding arrears in respect to Travel, Telephone and Technical Vocational allowances, as well as, Head of Department Ex gratia payments are not settled in their entity by April 30, 2025.Additionally, in April 2025, the Minister of Education corroborated that the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers was reasonable in its demands and admonished the agents tasked with satisfying those demands to do so within the stipulated timeline.
Moreover, the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers has apprised the Ministry of Education of the identity and nature of all outstanding payments from the commencement of the issuance of payments for settlement up to Thursday, May 8, 2025.
To date, the Ministry of Education and the Treasury Department are yet to fulfill their obligation to our nation’s teachers re outstanding payments.
Further, there are still a handful of teachers who are owed retroactive payment for Teacher Promotion for the period 2019–2021.
Lest we forget, in September 2024, the A&BUT staged industrial action to have this matter settled as more than 300 teachers were owed payments.
In good faith, we returned to work before every teacher was settled.
Yet settlement has not been realized for an unlucky few despite the government’s commitment to settling these arrears in a timely manner.Therefore, if our Prime Minister is fully committed to fighting stridently for the people of Antigua and Barbuda and to pursuing those who are undermining the interest of our nation’s youth, he needs to look within.
Colleagues, be informed, the Leadership of the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers will never surrender our rights, nor interests, nor cower to any bully regardless of their origin and the nature of their aggression.
As such, we call on our members to do the same and to remain resolute in this fight.
Consequently, the Executive of the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers hereby informs you, our members, fellow colleagues in the teaching fraternity within Antigua and Barbuda, parents, and our beloved students that the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers’ industrial action continues and will continue until our demands are met or we decide to offer grace to our employers.
