The National Newspaper of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
FRIDAY,
MAY 24, 2013
VOLUME 107, No.21
demographic were confirmed by the prominently featured THE DRAMA SURROUNDING the article, ‘Security duties at port Port Police/Port Authority may soon be in hands of industrial dispute impasse was RSVGPF’, as per the further heightened over this past Searchlight Newspaper. week. Prime Minister Dr. Ralph E Reports describing this Gonsalves and Edwin Snagg, government’s intent on the Chairman of the Port economic welfare of one Authority Board, reported Vincentian working class by JP SCHWMON
exclusively to a Searchlight staff reporter their intention to lay off the 80 plus Port Police Officers. Gonsalves, who is also the Minister of National Security, Air and Sea Port Development, is said to have confirmed, in that Friday 17th May 2013 issue, the move to place the management of the Port Authority’s security operations under the purview of this country’s top COP, a stance the Prime Minister was said to have noted as (apparently just) “one of the options being explored. But it is the preferred option.”
Union President responds
Port Police are responsible for ensuring security at the Cruise Ship terminal, among other ports of entry.
Some sympathetic observers have denounced the Prime Minister’s announcement as irresponsible and churlish. Cools Vanloo, Public Service Union president, criticised the impact of PM Gonsalves’ declared objective on the PSU’s constituents, as an overzealous scare tactic. “This is just another form
www.thevincentian.com
of intimidation. When I first heard of this I asked, ‘why is the government moving towards this action at this stage of the dispute?’ And we could only come up with two things — the Port’s management bungling of the incident involving the two dismissed officers which really is an embarrassment for them, and that the non-payment of the officers’ annual increments could quite possibly have far reaching financial implications, as any payment to the Port Police might just be incentive enough for the non-PSU represented Port workers to mobilize their union on their behalf… so if this issue has implications beyond the Port’s management, the best thing to do, it appears, is to [threaten to] take out the Port Police, ” Vanloo said. As for Chairman Snagg’s inept attempt to disguise the proposed redundancy exercise as a ‘much discussed’ policy suggestion, Vanloo again reiterated FOR THE VINCENTIAN “… the Union
EC$1.50
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, in the face of an unresolved industrial matter involving the Port Police, has intimated that an option of disbanding the unit has been discussed.
Cools Vanloo, President of the PSU, which represents the Port Police, has termed the PM’s indication as an overzealous scare tactic. and the Board just recently completed very amicable negotiations on behalf of the Port Police… Continued on Page 3.