PHILIPSBURG:--- In her press briefing of Wednesday, April 23rd, the Prime Minster and Shareholder Representative for the Telem Group the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams acknowledged receipt of a letter delivered to the Government by the union representing Telem's personnel. In their letter, the union representatives were very critical of the ongoing discussions between UTS and Telem.
The Prime Minister reiterated that there are at least 2 separate issues regarding the Telem and UTS companies.
One being the discussions with UTS to see if an agreement can be arrived at for a partnership arrangement between the 2 companies. This determination is yet to be made and is by no means a foregone conclusion.
In addition to that aspect, there is also the expressed desire of Government to acquire the St. Maarten UTS operation in "exchange" for its minority shareholding in the UTS Company.
Here too, there is no agreement in place yet. Let alone a decision as to what would happen if this request of the Government of St. Maarten would be honored by the majority UTS shareholder, the government of Curacao.
The recently announced LOI between UTS and Telem is not a final agreement for partnering between the two, but rather an agreement on what the next steps are to come to such a decision or conclusion. Other potential options for Telem have therefore not (yet) been discarded.
An important development for Telem in moving forward has been the "instruction" by the Prime Minister in her capacity as shareholder rep to Telem to negotiate a MOU with GEBE. Letter of the Prime Minister did this to Telem dated September 21, 2012.
In February 2013, such a MOU was signed between the 2 St. Maarten government-owned companies. In fact, this collaboration between the 2 companies can now be further solidified in a cooperation agreement and Telem's shareholder is looking forward to this happening in the near future.
This partnership with GEBE is an important instrument for Telem's FTTH (Fiber to the Home) project, which is to be launched shortly and could be initiated independently of any decision regarding partnering with another telecom company, UTS or other.
The Prime Minister, like she has done in the past, reiterated that UTS operations are of interest to the government of St. Maarten, not only as a minority shareholder, but even more so as a company on St. Maarten, with employees, whose well-being must also be taken into account.
As far as Telem is concerned, the proverbial bullet was bitten when the government and the company agreed to a restructuring plan provided a generous payout plan and today Telem and its workers are reaping the benefits of this decision.
Notwithstanding the competitive nature of its business, Telem has been able to turn things around compared to several years ago.
Nevertheless, the Prime Minister, aware of the effects of recent allegations regarding the company on the morale of Telem employees has made her intention known to meet with the workers of Telem to assure them that "this Shareholder Representative has no other agenda than to ensure that decisions made with respect to the company are in the interest of the company, its workers and telecommunications on St. Maarten in general."
From the Cabinet of the Prime Minister
