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].