Philipsburg:--- The civil servants, teachers and members of the police force represented by the ABVO will be meeting as of 07:30 am at the John Larmonie Center to begin discussing a counter proposal to send to the Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto.The organised labour unions had sent a five point resolution to the Minister on Monday night demanding that they be paid the additional 3.3% of their cost of living allowance in their February salary.
During a meeting on Wednesday with the unions, Minister Shigemoto told the union representatives that government workers will be paid on Friday and that 2% of the cost of living adjustments has been added to the salaries. The Minister also told the unions that he was not in a position to meet the demands of the workers since parliament already passed the budget which only allows him to pay out 2% of the cost of living adjustment. Shigemoto also informed the unions that he was willing to check and see how much monies government collects on the 5% TOT increase and to see if he can make the payment before January 2012. President of the Windward Islands Teachers Union Claire Elshot said the Minister told them that he could not go against the decisions taken by parliament regarding the budget.
While the meeting was taking place inside the Government Administration Building a number of teachers and workers from Pelican gathered outside the building to find out the outcome of the meeting. While the teachers were being updated several parliamentarians from the National Alliance faction was there listening to Elshot's address. Responding to her statements was Senator Louis Laviest who immediately said that the finance Minister should tell the people that they the UP/DP members of parliament voted in favour of the budget and not the members of the National Alliance faction. Laviest who was obviously angry at the statements said that the current government should take responsibility for their actions.Laviest also addressed members of the media concerning the laying off of the Pelican Workers and the cost of living allowance that is owed to civil servants. The senator said the workers and other people are being violated and the Prime Minister and acting labour Minister has allowed the people to become the laughing stocks of the world. He said he does not know of any leader who would allow investors to trample or to bring back a form of slavery to the people of St. Maarten. Laveist said he is not attacking the Prime Minister but he is saddened for the lack of representation that is offered to the island's people. Laviest said that the Prime Minister is a woman who attends all sorts of women's functions and she should know that most of the Pelican workers are women and it's a pity that she would allow all sorts of men to come to St. Maarten and trample on them.
Prior to meeting the with the Minister of Finance, treasurer of the WICSU/PSU Denicio Conner told reporters that it was highly likely that the civil servants and teachers along with police officers are going to take industrial action if they are not paid their full cost of living allowance. Conner said the unions have been very lenient with government and had waived the interest due to them but since government has decided not to keep their promise then the unions have no choice but to demand their monies with interest.We urge our readers to listen to the audio files that are related to this particular story.
