Fonseca: “Meeting with Unions Went Well”

It has been almost a year since the various unions staged several days of protest against the Government over their ten percent salary cut. This week, government representatives met with their union counterparts to discuss the growth of the economy, and the topic that matters to them – the ten percent. Minister of Education, Francis Fonseca, told News Five that the first meeting went well.

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“We had a very good meeting; I think a very good, productive meeting. The purpose of that meeting was to provide a comprehensive report to the joint unions on the state of our public finances, so we were able to do that. And we had a very vigorous meeting about that presentation. Of course, as you know, the unions are very concerned about the restoration of their salary back up to what it was before the ten percent cut. So we had a discussion about that as well. We agreed that we will meet again on February sixteenth. During that time we will share some additional information with the unions. I think the unions understand and accept that we are acting in good faith and that we are trying our best to be as transparent with them and sharing all the information we have with them. Our commitment from the very beginning was that if we saw a marked improvement in the performance of the economy we would try our very best at the earliest to return that salary to our public officers and teachers because we know how painful that cut were for them.”