P.S.U. Open to Making Sacrifice, But Then What?
The Public Service Union responded to the proposed cuts in a letter to the FinSec on May fourth. Henry voiced its discontent with the turn of events and contends that previous negotiations with government were seemingly not in good faith. According to Henry, public officers are open to making the necessary sacrifices given the present economic situation, however, government needs to be clear and forthcoming on what happens thereafter.
Isani Cayetano
“I know that the entire country is in financial straits as a result of COVID-19, is it your preliminary or your position going into the meeting that the membership of the Public Service Union, the executives as well, would be amenable to government’s proposal, notwithstanding the fact that we are in fact in a financial crunch?”
On the Phone: Gerald Henry, President, Public Service Union
“Well, my response to that would be that we have always been willing to make the sacrifices and in fact, as you may notice that in our correspondence to the FinSec we have said that we are amenable to make sacrifices. So it is just the manner in which the sacrifices, after we make those sacrifices what then would the government do to compensate us after, you know, the time has passed? So that, I think that is where the crux of the matter probably is and so that is where our response now will have to be or will be guided by the membership as to what they want or what they expect us to do after we make the sacrifices. We understand that sacrifices have to be made and we have always been making sacrifices as public officers. In fact, we have been the ones on the frontline ever since, every disaster or anything that the country faces, it’s always the public officers who are out there. As you may recall, in 1995 we made sacrifices as well for increment freeze for three years. So the public service has always sacrificed, we understand that there is a need for the sacrifice to take place but again there must be equity and, you know, that justification and so on in regards to exactly how you want us to sacrifice and so on and that is where we need to find that common ground and we need to get that understanding from the government and we feel that we’re not getting the information that we have requested from them for us to make an educated decision going forward.”
The Public Service Union has been given until May eighth to formally respond to the Ministry of Finance. We’ll have more on this developing story on Thursday.
