West Indies University staff activates strike in Jamaica

On Friday, the teaching and administrative staff working at the Mona branch of the University of the West Indies announced the start of a strike, in which they will ratify to the Jamaican government their demands for a salary increase.

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The 900-member West Indies Group of University Teachers (Wigut) union called for a period of action as of Friday because it still has not discussed the matter with the highest authorities of Education and Finance of the island, nor has it received any offers to the requests made.

This union requested a 25 percent increase in the salaries and per diems assigned to its members to be paid by February 29.

The strike includes the stoppage until January 22 of lessons, the delivery of academic material, meetings with tutors and remediation to students.

"Our main paymaster, the government of Jamaica, is our target. Unfortunately, protest action is the only way to get their attention," the union said in a recent statement, but vowed to avoid long-term disruption to students.

However, some press reports indicate coordination between the Jamaican Ministry of Finance and the University's central management to analyze the workers' request for compensation.

The University of the West Indies was founded in 1948 and has campuses in Mona (Jamaica), St. Augustine (Trinidad and Tobago), Cave Hills (Barbados), the so-called Global Campus, which offers virtual courses from centers in 16 countries in the region, and the Five Islands, dedicated to young people from five eastern Caribbean states.

The Jamaican campus is the oldest and opened in the same year that the university was founded.