Former Kenya Nation Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion and his new team have formed a new teachers union. According to reports, the former KNUT Sec-Gen is the protagonist of the new teachers union.
On his part, Wilson Sossion has disconnected himself from the reports saying that he left KNUTand he is not interested in being involved in the teaching fraternity.
“Teachers are rebelling…splinters are formed to fill vacuums. I left KNUT and shouldn’t be associated with activities within the teaching service,” said Sossion.
The new union called the National Education Union (NEU) has been created after a prolonged and costly battle between KNUT and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) which led to thousands of teachers leaving the teachers union.
The NEU has not yet been registered, though it is believed that the process is at an advanced stage. This is likely to be another plot to try and get some money from the payslips of teachers who work hard for what they earn.
The former leadership of KNUT experienced a bad relationship with the Commission and this led to KNUT members missing out on the benefits of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the years 2017 – 2021.
Rumors doing the rounds are that KNUT could turn out to be for primary teachers while KUPPET will be for secondary school teachers.
Besides, there have been revelations that in the new CBA, school administrators are not going to be members of KNUT.
KNUT, KUPPET and KUSNET are set to submit a copy of the agreed and signed CBA to the Labour and Relations Court.
The new teachers union, NEU, whose theme is “Service, Justice, and Unity” is set to recruit teachers from pre-primary, primary, secondary, and tertiary levels including those teaching in private schools.
Another proposed teachers union, the Kenya National Union of School Administrators (KNUSA), has come up with a 46-page constitution and is also luring teachers to enroll with them.
Fearing losing its members, the Kenya National Union of Private Teachers wanted to change its name to the Kenya National Union of Private and Basic Education School teachers (KUBBEST) to attract teachers teaching in public schools.
There has been a feeling that the existing teachers’ unions are not fighting for teachers’ rights the way they are expected to. Perhaps this can be related to how things have transpired between KNUT and TSC.
TSC even threatened to cancel the recognition agreement between them and KNUT meaning the union could have been rendered powerless in negotiations between them and the Commission.
KNUT has since seen new leadership at the helm with the current secretary-general Collins Oyuu being elected un-opposed following the withdrawal of Wilson Sossion a few days to the elections.
According to the new CBA, teachers are not going to get any salary increments in the period between 2021 -2025.
The union has pledged to address salary increments with the new CBA having buried teachers’ hopes concerning any salary increments for a few years at least. A reduction of union dues from 1.8 % to 1% and fighting for the rights of all teachers without bias.