PHILIPSBURG:--- Three members of the Windward Islands Chamber of Labor Unions (WICLU) held their first bi-monthly press conference for the year 2014 on Tuesday. Apart from the New Year's wishes from the three members of the WICLU, they updated the media on several issues that are affecting the working class.
President of the Windward Islands Civil Servants Union and Private Sector Union WICSU/PSU who is now also the President of WICLU Derie Leonard told reporters that the WICSU/PSU filed a court case against the Government of St. Maarten for the remainder of the 2011 COLA payments and the COLA for 2012. Leonard said that the union is now awaiting the court date. President of the Windward Island Teachers Union (WITU) Claire Elshot said the teachers union did not take a definite stand as to if they too will file a court case against government. She said they will be seeking legal advice since government did not respect the payment structure when they accepted the 50% payment last year. "We specifically told government that we will accept the 50% but it must be indexed to the worker's salaries and not be paid out in a lump sum. The COLA structure on how it is to be paid was done by a reputable firm and we believe government needs to respect this," Elshot said.
The WICLU during its revamping discussed the solidarity charter, they made some changes as who will be representing the unions in the tripartite committee, a six member dismissal committee was formed while they also discussed the upcoming ILO conference. Another concern the WICLU will be tackling is the Consumer Foundation that is supposed to be in place to protect consumers. Leonard said not too long ago some tourists bought jewelry on St. Maarten that turned out to be fake, while there are supermarkets selling expired goods. She said when this happens the consumer has no one to assist them. Therefore, the WICLU wants to know if the Consumer Foundation is still in existence. "If this foundation is still functioning then we need to know where is their office and who is the person or persons in charge."
Ludson Evers who representing workers from Telecommunication and Post said they have a number of issues at TELEM. "Right now a government owned company is operating without at CEO. Secondly, we sent a number of letters to the Minister of General Affairs starting since November 2013 and to date the union has not received a response." Evers said on Friday and Monday the union dispatched some letters of reminder to the various ministers and this time the letters were copied to the Ombudsman. Evers said they are also seeking clarity from the Inspectorate of Health who was called to TELEM because someone that is residing on the island illegally was hired by the government owned company. He said they have a letter to show that the chairperson of the board stated that the person would be taking up a position in the company but when the inspectorate paid TELEM a visit they were told the person was there to give technical support. "I want to know who does the inspectorate listen to or believe because there is a letter signed by the chairperson stating what position this illegal person holds but he chose to accept the verbal explanation given to him by management. Because of this we wrote a letter to the Minister of Labour Cornelius de Weever and that too was copied to the Ombudsman.