The SVUT and PSU lapsed big time!

24.OCT.08

Editor: The government of St Vincent and the Grenadines and the St Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union (SVGUTU) and the Public Service Union (PSU) are struggling to implement the Reclassification exercise. There is a money difference of three per cent between what the government is offering and what the unions are demanding.{{more}}

Industrial action was started by the teachers union not turning up at schools. The PSU has now joined the protest, and they are both demonstrating outside of the Financial Complex.

The interesting thing is that the very day when the protestors targeted the Financial Complex, in advance of the protest last Thursday (and very early in the morning at that), the country was experiencing very severe tidal waves, both on the main land and throughout the Grenadines. Many fishing boats were either severely damaged or destroyed. There was no ferry service to or from the Grenadines. In fact, there had been widespread damage on the entire south and west of our coast line.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about that Tsunami was that neither the Port Authority nor the Customs and Excise Department, major revenue earners, could operate for over twenty-four hours. The protest is about money. What should an employee do if natural disaster threatens to diminish an employer’s ability to earn?

The name of the late L.A Providence comes to mind. “YOU ARE A TEACHER OF THOUGHT”.

Had the Unions taken into consideration the severity of the tidal wave that was impacting on our nation last Thursday, and chosen to suspend the protest, both the employer and Vincentians as a whole would have had praise and admiration at once for the Vincentian nationalism.

The unions lapsed. BIG TIME.

Stanley Quammie