General Secretary says DPSU will meet Government on salary and other issues, but under certain conditions

​General Secretary Thomas Letang says the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU) will meet with Government on salary and other important issues, that are critical to its members, but only under certain conditions.
 
Speaking at a press conference at the DPSU Building on Tuesday, he said such a meeting must be in a place where freedom of speech is allowed, and is only between the relevant members of Government and the DPSU.
 
Last week Prime Minister Skerrit announced that Government is willing to meet with various unions and members of civil society, to discuss salary negotiations and other matters. But Letang said the DPSU is not interested in meeting in that suggested situation. He wants other issues beyond salary negotiations to be addressed, but without other persons present, so that the union is not limited as to the topics that it can bring to the table.
 
Letang believes the DPSU is being disrespected, as no mention has been made by the Government, of the union’s letter requesting a meeting between just the two negotiating parties. He added that it is unacceptable for one party to unilaterally determine when and where the parties must meet to negotiate or discuss. Letang says the only thing they have been told by Government so far, is that they simply “cannot pay a salary increase”, and that offer cannot be considered by the DPSU.
 
He added that “There are a lot of other things that we have proposed that they have not mentioned. We do not want to go to any meetings where we will have any surprises. In the meantime, we will continue to engage our membership on what is happening. We have been going around and meeting our members and explaining to them what is happening, and giving reasons why the executive has taken certain positions.” He confirmed that a Solidarity Rally is planned by the DPSU for 27th April 2017.