Protests in SVG as Teachers protest Prime Minister’s Vaccine Mandate

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#St.Vincent&theGrenadines, December 15, 2021 – Tensions between the government and the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers Union are getting worse, not better following the passing of the December 3 deadline for all teachers to get vaccinated.

The situation in the country began with the announcement of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves that all teachers would be treated as front-line workers and in doing so were required to be vaccinated by December 3rd.

The teachers union immediately called for a strike from all teachers vaccinated and unvaccinated. Representatives of the union said “These are our colleagues, they are educated people, we trust them to make their decisions.”

The teachers union, in a press release posted to their Facebook page, called for all teachers to ‘stay away from all face to face and online classes on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week.

In a press conference last Wednesday a representative said that they were not warning people off of the vaccine.

She said, “What we have always said is vaccination is a choice, it’s your right it’s your body to choose.”

Prime Minister Gonsalves has already warned teachers prior to this protest that he was prepared to hire other people, even retirees to teach in their place.

“You want to go to school and stay in your staff room? I ain’t sending police to move you. I just get somebody else to teach people’s children, including, if necessary, retired teachers… that is how high on the totem pole I put the children,” he said.

Regardless of the warning teachers and even a few students picketed in Kingstown on Friday, some signs condemning the vaccine mandate read “I call my own shots”, “Say No to Peer Pressure”, “This is not a choice, this is coercion”.

Even children were in attendance wearing signs that condemned the mandate. One teacher, in particular, explained how he had been dismissed from his life’s work without the traditional fanfare because he had refused the jab.

The day ended with the Vice President of Rise Hairouna, a nonprofit on the island, being taken to the police station, it is unclear whether charges were laid against him.