Mon, 22 May 2017 13:12:46 +0000
By ANNIE ZULU
TEACHER Unions in Zambia have completely betrayed their members through poor representation, Zambian Teachers Forum (ZTF) Muchinga Province director Benny Chishatama has said.
Mr Chishatama charged that unions had outlived their usefulness in the teaching fraternity because of their poor and unreliable continuity representation towards their role.
He accused unions of having failed to negotiate with Government on improved salaries and many other challenges faced by teachers.
“Teacher Unions are now a thorn in the flesh of teachers and suffice to mention that, it doesn’t pay anyone now to align oneself to unions that don’t advocate for members’ interest and this is because of mediocre leadership in place which is there for self-gain.
“The Unions are supposed to speak fearlessly, negotiate diligently with the Government and other stakeholders. Thereafter, give a sound and health feedback to its loyal members, but they are not doing that.
“They have betrayed their loyal members and this is an indication that they have become useless to the teaching fraternity, they have decided to keep quiet when teachers are seriously expecting answers,” Mr Chishatama.
He urged teachers not to sit idle and wait for the unions to speak for them, but rather unite and push for their rights.
“Taking an active role as teachers like old teachers used to do will address our needs than just watching when we are in a sagging economy. Teachers should stop cowardice behaviour and be united to push for what is due for us.
“It’s sad to learn that we claim to be educated and yet we don’t know the roles of unions we subscribe to are supposed to perform.
“This has made unions to completely take advantage of us because they know that even if union don’t represent us well, they will still milk a K75 from our salary and later blindfold us with the worst Chinese shirt on Teachers’ Day, shame indeed,” he said.
