Marigot:--- Workers from the Caisse Territorial des Cuvres Scolaires (Cuisine Centrale) began a go slow action on Tuesday morning along with representatives of their unions.. The workers as well as three members including the secretary general of UTG and UGTG Saint Hillaire Mave were among the workers who stood alongside the Rue de Spring awaiting a response from the CTOS members of the school canteen and the Collectivity of Saint Martin.
Mave told SMN News that it has been months now the unions have been requesting documents from the CTOS and the Collectivity of St. Martin to evaluate their member's salaries and benefits but those documents are not forthcoming. "We have asked for the documents since the Month of May and to date we cannot get them. We also notified the President of the CTOS Karine Mills that we would have been coming today to get the documents but when she saw the go slow action she took off and left." Mave said the President of the Collectivity received them on Tuesday to inform them that he will meet with them from October 4th to 8th to begin their side of the negotiations.
SMN News learnt that the union did not give the CTOS and the COM the usual 'preavis' to begin industrial action and thus the students who are dependent on school lunches would suffer. However, Mave said the letter they sent to the CTOS telling them that they were coming for the relevant documents is the preavis.While on the location the assistant to the CTOS president Karine Mills and another administrative worker approached the union with a letter and an envelope containing some documents. Mave said the letter basically asked the workers to return to work pending the negotiations with the CTOS, and the unions on Wednesday morning at the Evelina Halley School in Marigot. He said the workers did not go back to work on Tuesday but they would be meeting with the CTOS members on Wednesday.
Workers on the scene said the elected officials of the COM has used their power to regulate their friends and families who are working for the Collectivity salaries so that these persons can receive proper benefits when they go on pension."We are working now and we can hardly pay our bills, workers here have a salary to depend on now and they still cannot make it at the end of the month, but the real squeeze they would feel it when they go on pension said another worker. Those in power are robbing the workers while enriching themselves and we are not going to allow this to happen anymore" another worker said.
