Workers plans to call in prosecution if the Minister of TEATT does not intervene, ABVO UNION will be fired in order to make CLA null and void.
AIRPORT:--- Employees of the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) are up in arms with their union representative from ABVO whom they said appointed a set of persons as shop stewards to negotiate and sign a Collective Labor Agreement (CLA) that they did not see or approve before it was signed last week.
The workers who spoke to SMN News and provided several CLA’s that was signed by ABVO which they said is not in accordance with the airport policies. The workers said that they mandated their union representative to demand from PJIAE management the companies policies, and the financial statements of the government owned company but to date those documents were not provided to them in order for them to see whether or not the CLA that was negotiated by people that were not elected by them are in compliance with company policies.
“Over the years workers at PJIAE have been robbed, because we believe the union is being paid under the table by management, we also believe that government is not doing their jobs because it’s been years now government failed to appoint a labor mediator that can intervene in labor disputes. We have a message for the Minister of TEATT Ingrid Arrindell, it’s either she meet with the workers who will point out all the illegalities at PJIAE or allow us to call in the Prosecution because there is so much illegal activities taking place at PJIAE that will land a number of persons in jail. As for the ABVO we will fire them immediately which will make the CLA they signed off on without the approval of their membership null and void. We asked for the companies policies for several reasons, one article 30-1 states that employees can only be punished based on the policies of the airport, yet we cannot see the airport policies. Besides that the airport hired two persons that have no knowledge of on how to negotiate CLA’s they are Elton Jones and Clarence Richardson. We do not know who checked and approved these appointment of these persons and if they are competent to negotiate on behalf of the airport. We know for sure that when the prosecution is called in all those persons that have been robbing the workers while enriching themselves will end up where they had to be for years now. We are approaching a new year and the abuse of workers will end once and for all. If we have to shut down the airport we will do just that in order for Government to take the necessarry actions."
The workers provided SMN News Scales dating back to 1999 which shows how workers including laborers are supposed to be paid and when they are entitled to promotions, but the scales they said were not applied. The workers also provided another salary scale that was made up in 2012 which clearly showed that the worker’s salaries reduced instead of being increased. “No one pays a union to take them backwards, we are being taken backwards while cost of living on St. Maarten has skyrocketed. Our only conclusion is that management of PJIAE bought out ABVO who appointed people to negotiate and signed off on a CLA that the membership did not see or approve.”
Last week Wednesday SMN News asked the Minister of TEATT Ingrid Arrindell if she was aware of the disagreements the workers are having with the CLA negotiations and she said she was informed of the problems but was also advised not to intervene since the negotiation between management and the union representatives were ongoing. SMN News asked the Minister if government has any labor mediator in place and she said the last mediator she knows about was the former Minister of Labor Raphael Boasman.