By DARCEL CHOY Thursday, September 13 2012

Today and tomorrow teachers across the country will stay away from school to “rest and reflect” on the progress of negotiations.

Negotiations for the new collective bargaining period 2009-2011 have been taking place since last year, between the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) and the Chief Personnel Officer, Stephanie Lewis (CPO).

Newsday spoke to teachers yesterday who said they have reached their boiling point. They demanded that negotiations be completed as they were fed-up of living on 2008 salaries.

One teacher who did not want to give her name said it was not fair that teachers were going through this, at a time when cost of living was so high.

“I have two children and one on the way, my husband is a construction worker and he doesn’t get jobs all the time so it’s mainly my salary that we survive on, and it is pittance that we get. Food is going up, transportation is going up, it is everything that has gone up, and the CPO refuses to give us what we want,” she said.