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Friday, March 29, 2024
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POLICE STAGE JOB ACTIONS

Demands by rank and file police officers for retroactive pay and other negotiated benefits were made from the streets of Charlotte Amalie Friday.
The Police Benevolent Association, whose St. Croix members demonstrated Thursday and staged a job action Friday, organized a protest outside the Richard N. Callwood "Zone A" Command.
In an apparent escalation of tactics aimed at pressuring the government, PBA president Officer Elroy Raymo said visitors to the territory, the lifeblood of the tourism based economy, will be told that they are not safe in the Virgin Islands. "Next time we will demonstrate in front of the tourists to let them know that the government has no regard for their safety by its neglect of the police," he said to reporters during the march and protest.
He represented police officers as suffering economic hardships and low morale as the result of the erosion of their earnings, and said Gov. Charles Turnbull should step down from office if he can't honor their contract. "We are demonstrating the lack of increases in pay. It is a tragedy that we must beg for what is legally ours. If the Turnbull/James administration cannot do the job, they should resign." Raymo shouted.
Reflecting labor's waning confidence in the administration, Raymo criticized the lack of any apparent plan for resolving fiscal issues affecting all areas of government.
"We have allowed the governor to sit in office without a plan to address what is owed the unions. While our salary remains the same, everything is going up: power rates, water rates and the price of gasoline," he said while other officers rallied for support from passing motorists.
The administration's inability to fund existing contract agreements, Raymo suggested, should void the need for a Chief Labor Negotiator. Yet, he noted, Karen Andrews, is on the payroll. "The Chief Negotiator has yet to sit down with any union to address the government's debt. We are paying her to do diddly-squat," he said.
The PBA membership was joined by teachers union president Glen J. Smith in a show of solidarity. "We are here to show support for our fellow unions. The government workers suffer while tax breaks are doled out each year to private companies. Its time to end the struggle," Smith said in brief remarks. He urged that labor play its role in seeing to it that the next elections bring in leadership which will be more responsive to the fiscal needs of government. "We need to elect those lawmakers who will look out for our best interest. They must be ready to tackle issues like the restructuring of the local economy," Smith added.
While he has not formally announced, Smith is expected to be a candidate for a seat in the 24th Legislature. Government House had not commented on the latest protest and demonstrations over back pay and salary increases to be staged by organized labor in the Virgin Islands.

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