Philipsburg:--- The President of the Windward Island Teachers Union (WITU) Claire Elshot announced on Thursday that a member of the WITU just recently returned from St. Lucia after completing training on how to be a shop steward. The WITU intends to have shop stewards in all the schools on St. Maarten who would receive the necessary training locally.
The WITU President also announced that the union and its board is currently meeting with various school boards to discuss increasing the vacation allowances for teachers which now stands at 6% on St. Maarten. Elshot said that Aruba, Curacao, and the BES islands already have been paying their teachers 8% of their salaries in vacation allowances and it is time that St. Maarten step to the plate and increase the teachers' vacation allowances. Elsot said the union will be meeting with the GOA to discuss all other issues relating to teachers especially when it comes to their pension fund.
Elshot also announced on Thursday during the Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Unions press briefing that the annual biennial congress for teachers will be held in Guyana in 2013 and it will be hosted by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) in Georgetown, Guyana. Elshot said Guyana has a very strong teachers union and she is baffled as to why the Guyanese teachers on St. Maarten are afraid to become members of the WITU.
When asked if the WITU is looking into the issues surrounding the head of the Education Department Mrs. Davis Holiday, Elshot said they are not part of the committee that was installed to investigate the functioning of the Department of Education but one thing for sure is that public schools on St. Maarten were facing a number of issues before Davis Holiday was appointed head of the department. The WITU President said they will be waiting on the outcome of the investigation and hopes that the Minister will apprise them of the outcome.
