Minister leaves again without
solving problems, says ABVO
POINTE BLANCHE--Minister of Justice David Dick has once again received a package of information from civil servants union ABVO containing several pending issues pertaining to the legal position of prison guards, the safety situation at the prison and introduction of a new salary structure.
The Minister had been in St. Maarten since Thursday and on two occasions visited the prison to attend to matters.
ABVO representative in St. Maarten Randall Salome told The Daily Herald the Minister had promised repeatedly to look into the various issues, but still no concrete decisions had been taken. “It seems that St. Maarten is not important. If not the prison, it’s the Police Force, Immigration Department or the Courthouse that has some kind of complaint that their matters are not being handled,” Salome said.
He said prison guards could not function normally because they had been waiting for so long for either a personal matter to be handled, the safety situation for them and the inmates to be upgraded, or the new salary structure to be put in place.
Salome added that Dick had reorganisation plans for the prison, but he wanted to know how the Minister would be going over to a new structure without dealing with the backlog of matters he had to attend to for the prison guards.
However, ABVO will be waiting patiently on the Minister, Salome said, despite the frustration of many of its members who have been suffering because nothing has been handled for them thus far.
Salome refuted reports that ABVO had anything to do with the strike of the inmates last week Thursday or with the dismissal of Dick Romkema. “The judge ruled in the case of the inmates and it’s up to them to fight for their own cause,” he said. Regarding Romkema’s dismissal, Salome said ABVO had never come to his defence, despite the fact that prison management had been trying to get rid of him for speaking the truth.
Finally the ABVO representative reacted to reports of the Windward Islands Civil Servants union (WICSU) not approving the ABVO strike last week Friday.
“It was strange to have taken notice of the WICSU report stating that what the ABVO had done wasn’t correct. But, we can understand that when someone is looking out for personal interest he cannot defend the interest of the workers,” Salome said, directing his remarks at WICSU President William Reed.
Salome insisted that ABVO would make a strong stand on this matter, as the union had been told the Minister would come to St. Maarten this time with documents containing concrete decisions under his arm. “That’s why we were waiting on the Minister last week to come with concrete decisions. But, once again the Minister has left again without bringing solution to any of the pending matters,” Salome said.
