The organisations - the Botswana Primary Teachers Association (BOPRITA), Botswana Teachers' Union (BTU), Botswana Secondary Teachers Union (BOSETU) and the Association of Botswana Tertiary Lecturers (ABOTEL) have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding to guide them during the negotiations. The aim of the merger of these organisations is so that they can speak with one voice, as they are in the same profession and are all advocating for the welfare of teachers with the same employer - Teaching Service Management. The president of the Botswana Secondary Teachers Union and organiser of the meeting, Eric Ditau said that this will be to make sure that all the teachers organisations are on the same footing before the talks begins. "As presidents we are the ones who are supposed to make sure that everything runs smoothly," he said. However, there seems to be animosity between the four teachers' organisations before the negotiations begin. A statement made by the BTU president about their position in the 1980s, when they wanted the other teacher's organisations to disband and join BTU irked the other organisations at a recent conference. They wanted BTU to explain if the utterances showed that it still holds the same position. ABOTEL on the other hand is said to be reluctant to go into the talks with teachers from the lower levels. In a meeting that excluded the president of BTU a letter questioning BTU's stand was written to the latter to explain what they meant.

"We have since written a letter to BTU to explain to us if those utterances reflect their position or what but they have not responded yet," Ditau said. On the other hand BTU is adamant that they have not received any letter from the other organisations on the issue. "I haven't seen any letter but after that incident I called them and explained my position to them. I never said that they should disband to join BTU but rather one big teachers organisation should be formed because as BTU we are willing to disband for the new organisation to be formed," Radibe said.