DPSU Secretary General Thomas Letang has warned the management of the Dominica State College (DSC) that sacking any staffs taking part in the ongoing industrial strike action will not be without consequences. He warned DSC President, Dr. Donald Peters, that the DPSU will vehemently resist any attempt by DSC to sack any DSC staffs, and that the union will marshal the entire DPSU membership to this end.
“To tell people their services have been withdrawn, that is ridiculous and the man better come good because we are not going to joke with him [Donald Peters],” Letang said. “If he wants to threaten anybody here in terms of their job, we are not going to joke about it. You harass one, you touch one, you touch everybody. If the problems cannot be resolved here, we will seek solidarity from the rest of our membership.”
Letang said he has been representing DSC staff over the years and it had not been easy given the difficulties put up by the state college. He stated that DPSU supports the students and faculty members of DSC in their strike action since the government has failed to meet basic agreements entered with them for several years. He disclosed that both the DSC and the government have violated the labour laws of Dominica and must be alerted to their failure.
Staff and students of DSC have continued to engage in protests to press home demands which include bumping the base salary back to $4,000 instead of the current $3,200; appointment of a functioning board of directors and other top administrative positions such as a bursar, registrar, vice president, and human resource manager; and rehabilitation of damaged classrooms, computer rooms, library, engineering workshops, and other building facilities.
“The physical condition of the college is in a deplorable state, the classrooms do not have the furniture that they should have, no electricity in some rooms, no doors and windows, no library, auditorium, computer rooms, technical/vocational workshops and that situation would aggravate anybody,” Letang said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Peters allegedly stated that the government reduced DSC’s subsistence revenue from $9 million to $4.5 million as a result of the introduction of free tuition to the college. Letang said this is not sensible; and that DPSU has not resolved the protest crisis currently ongoing at DSC with the college one-man leadership even though Peters said it had been resolved. Furthermore, the Alternative People’s Party (APP) has condemned the actions of the police force for escorting protesters out of the DSC campus on the basis that their services had been revoked. APP’s administrative assistant, Sherlyn Sabroache, said this development portends serious dangers to the students and staff of the institution and that the police authorities must rethink its actions in the light of the demonstrators’ demands.
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