Urgency of request to the Prime Minister reiterated by unions
The Prime Minister of St. Maarten, the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams called for an extra-ordinary Council of Ministers’ meeting on Thursday to discuss the issues brought up by the union, representing the police personnel.. This meeting was requested by the police unions by letter dated April 19th.
"Unfortunately the respective letter was emailed to the wrong address. However when I did in fact receive the letter, I requested it to be placed on the next agenda of the Council of Ministers. This was also communicated to the unions concerned, who then requested the Prime Minister to convene such a meeting before the Carnival holidays. On Wednesday evening, after consultation with the Minister of Justice, the extra-ordinary meeting was convened for Thursday morning at ten. Although we had to postpone and rearrange various events and meetings in our schedules, we considered it important that the matter be discussed very urgently," stated the Prime Minister.
The ABVO, NAPB, and WICSU/PS unions had various concerns regarding the restructuring of the Police Force since the constitutional changes of 10-10-10.
"I am pleased to announce that the meeting did take place and after parties had the opportunity to state their positions and react to one another’s, there is a clear way going forward, which entails the submission to the unions of the most recent documentation regarding the legal position of the police and the organization plan of the force. While there are also the matters of placement plan, plans of approach and function descriptions, the basic legal positions and organization are cardinal elements to have in place, so other matters can then be worked out as well."
"I consider it a "break-through" that we have a firm agreement that following the carnival period, the Minister, Police Management and Unions will get together to iron out matters and set the dialogue structure going forward. The Minister of Justice has proposed that this tri-partite meeting takes place between May 6th and 8th to which the unions agreed."
A letter from the Prime Minister will formalize the agreements as reached in the meeting with the unions, NAPB, ABVO-SXM and WICSU-PSU on Thursday, April 25th.