POINT, Hanover — Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Mark Malabver has vowed that he will not become the leader who accepts the lowest salary increase for the union’s members in its 62-year history.

“I will not go down in history as being the president that got the least increase,” he said of ongoing wage negotiations with the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.

Malabver was speaking during Thursday’s opening session of the JTA’s Helen Stills Professional Development Day at Grand Palladium Hotel located at Point in Hanover. He recounted a cautionary tale of a former JTA head who, instead of securing a raise, “came back with a deep freeze” [on salaries].

“I don’t intend to be that president. I don’t intend to call any names, but the truth is, colleagues, that I am way past the wage freeze,” declared Malabver.

The JTA is scheduled to meet with the finance ministry again on May 20 to continue wage negotiations.

As he has often done in the past, the union head on Thursday framed the negotiations as a broader rights issue and drew a comparison between educators’ wages and that of politicians.

However, he expressed optimism that a resolution is near.

“I believe that something good is going to happen this year for our teachers. I believe that. And I maintain, colleagues, that we have to get to a point where we recognise that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs comes before Bloom’s taxonomy. And what this means, colleagues, is that you cannot expect a teacher to be in the classroom operating at his or her optimal level and their basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter are not being met,” stressed Malabver.

“I know you’re vexed, but I believe that something is going to happen. And the same mouth that cussed today, hopefully they’ll end up being a little bit grateful tomorrow. But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” the JTA president added.

The Helen Stills Professional Development Day was held under the theme ‘Putting On My Mask First: Protecting My Physical and Mental Health’ and Malabver’s remarks at one point struck a tone of reassurance and encouragement.

“The atmosphere suggests that you should relax. And it’s important, colleagues, because for too long educators have been expected to pour endlessly into others while running on empty themselves,” he stated.

He emphasised the emotional and physical toll that comes with being in the classroom.

“We ask teachers on a daily basis, colleagues, to manage trauma, indiscipline, grief, anxiety, increased workloads, and the emotional burdens that come with the profession. And that is why, colleagues, this theme is so important. ‘Putting on my mask first’ is not selfish. It is wisdom. It is recognising, colleagues, that protecting your mental and physical health is a professional responsibility and an act of self-preservation,” he said.

Malabver also highlighted the guilt he said teachers often feel when taking time off from the job.

“No matter how sick you are and you lie down in your bed and you feel sick, you always remember that student that if you don’t go to school, chances are he won’t get his lunch today… And if you don’t go to school, you won’t finish the curriculum,” said the JTA president.

He noted that disgruntled teachers sometimes hold off on taking industrial action out of concern for their students — empathy that is then used against them around the bargaining table.

“The Government tends to use [it] and exploit us. They always say, ‘Remember di pickney dem’. And we, like idiots, always remember the pickney dem at the end of the day,” Malabver stated.

The JTA president also acknowledged challenges faced by the education system this year, including those linked to the aftermath of last October’s Hurricane Melissa.

“The education system has never been tested as it has been tested this year. We faced Hurricane Melissa, and a number of our colleagues in the west were seriously damaged. As an association we decided that we had to respond to that call,” stated Malabver, who detailed the association’s relief efforts.

“We identified some $35 million and we decided that we were going to prepare some care packages… We distributed over 2,000 care packages to our teachers and that cost us in excess of $15 million… What we are doing and what we plan to do in terms of completing our Hurricane Melissa initiative is going to cost us in excess of $50 million,” he said.