Philipsburg:--- President of the Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU) Claire Elshot told reporters on Thursday during the Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Unions press briefing that the WITU will dispatch a letter sometime on Thursday to request information on the Cost of Living Adjustments.
Elshot said her members exercised patience and waited until the 2012 budget was approved by Parliament and now that the budget has been approved they have been contacting her to find out what is the union's next move. Elshot said the letter will be sent to the Ministers of General Affairs, Finance, and Education and the WITU will be asking the various Ministers to make the payments by June 2012 since the COL payments for 2010 were to be made since January 2012.
Elshot also informed the media that they have taken note of the consumer price index which is now 5.2%. She said that this trend has become very worrisome for the union since it goes to show that the cost of living on St. Maarten is rising on a yearly basis. Elshot said the union is claiming the 2010 COL but right now there is another 2% that has been added to the cost of living on St. Maarten. The WITU President said the consumer price index which was released earlier this week makes it even more difficult for the unions to look at any other way of indexing the teachers and civil servants salaries. She said the unions are unable to look at other means of indexation because workers would lose their purchasing power and they might end up falling into the poverty stream. "Eradication of poverty has been on the agenda of certain groups and the unions would have to continue being the watchdog for their membership."
The WITU president said they will be questioning government on behalf of the pensioners who did not receive certain monies that are due to them prior to the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles. Elshot said the pensioners got some monies last year but that was for the year 2010. However, pensioners that are former civil servants did not receive their pension calculation and these pensioners are now claiming these monies retroactively. Elshot said one of the major concerns for the unions is the Cost of Living Adjustments for both the active and inactive civil servants, teachers and pensioners.