| But were their chants heard by the ruling party in parliament? It was an open air house meeting but the protestors were confined to the ring road - a few hundred yards away.
Today we asked the Prime Minister if he felt the demonstration overshadowed the celebratory mood of the opening of parliament.
As usual, he said it's their right to protest, and reiterated that the government's team will be meeting with them. But are they willing to give the teachers their 8.5% salary increase?
It doesn't seem likely. Here's what he said.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I don't think it was overshadow. Like I said, the unions have a right to protest, that's their job, that's their work as the leaders trying to basically tell, they're campaigning with their voters which is their union members, and that's fine, that's okay. We came here and we presented a broad vision of what we hope to accomplish in the next five years."
Reporter:
"But as the minister of finance how do you address their concerns demanding salary adjustments of 8%, the immediate implementation of the $6 per hour for minimum wage and so forth?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I think certainly it is their right to make those demands and to ask of the government. Now, it is now our responsibility to meet with them and see what we could afford. If we could afford that we'll give it to them. If we can afford more, we'll gladly do so, but we have to look within the ambit of what we have. The pie is one size, it's not bigger and it's growing slowly but the demands are growing even larger. When you make, the Ministry of Finance made a quick estimate of what they're asking, that will add another 60, approximately 63 million dollars to the wage bill. As it is right now, I think the wage bill is over 700 million dollars and it gives you pause to think that if we were to do what recklessly then we may have to cut other social programs and other things we want to do so it's a balancing act from our end. They have their demands or their requests and we sit down and we talk to them and try to find a common ground that can meet some of their objectives but at the same time for us to be able to be a responsible government."
Courtney Menzies:
"They'll make the argument that you increase the CEOs' salaries and the Cabinet Secretary's salaries but can't increase their ones, they'll say well, cut back on the CEOs' salaries."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well, the thing is when you look at that, you're looking at $300,000 versus 64 million dollars, do the math."
Jules Vasquez:
"But sir do you blame Stuart Leslie the Cabinet Secretary because it's he who has the government, early into its second term, locked in this dispute that is a challenging one because he went ahead and gave these lavish increases."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I really don't want to start with an argument with you, not today, please, but the point is that I don't know how you could describe it as lavish because it's really not lavish and at the end of the day, I have to take responsibility as the prime minister and the Minister of Finance so if you want to blame anyone, blame me."
| 