St. Thomas and St. Croix labor leaders are denouncing what they term the Turnbull administration’s refusal to rehire laid-off public transit workers and charging that funds appropriated for the purpose have been misspent in other ways.
Ralph Mandrew of the Central Labor Council and Luis "Tito" Morales of the United Steelworkers Union said more than half of the $660,000 appropriated by the Legislature to re-hire the 62 Vitran workers and keep them on the payroll until the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30 has been spent elsewhere.
Mandrew represents workers on St. Thomas and St. John and Morales, those on St. Croix, who were furloughed by the Public Works Department on May 11. The layoffs represented half of the total Vitran work force.
The administration's chief labor negotiator, Karen Andrews, said $370,000 of the money, appropriated from the government's Indirect Cost Fund, has already gone to pay outstanding bills incurred by Vitran for fuel, tires and operating expenses.
Morales disputed Andrews’ assertion that the $370,000 was needed for such purposes, saying Public Works Commissioner Harold Thompson Jr. had authorized the use of Vitran fare box receipts to meet those expenses. He said he also was told that the remaining $290,000 was not enough to cover the reinstatement of even some of the laid-off workers.
"They are not bringing back anyone," Morales said of the administration.
In the weeks between the time the layoffs were announced and the date they were implemented, Vitran workers offered to forgo overtime, sick leave and holiday pay and to cut back to a four-day work week in order to preserve their jobs. Andrews refused to enter into talks with the union leaders until Gov. Charles W. Turnbull signed the $660,000 appropriation. Both sides agreed to withhold public comment until the talks were concluded.
Speaking Wednesday morning on WSTA Radio, Andrews said the $660,000 was only part of a $3.6 million financing package put together from money available in various funds. She said the money would go to meet outstanding Vitran obligations through Sept. 30.
She also said the proposed four-day work week did not represent savings equivalent to the administration's 50 percent cut in public transit personnel and operations.
