Following the success of local labor to have the memorandum of understanding amended through lobbying by the United Steelworkers of America, the territory’s teachers union is now tapping its national organization to help solve the V.I.’s economic woes.
Cecil Benjamin, president of the St. Croix chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said that the national AFT, an affiliate of the 13 million-member AFL-CIO, has formed a task force to lobby federal help for the territory. Benjamin said the the focus will be on increasing federal aid, a return of excise taxes on petroleum products produced at HOVENSA and the forgiveness of Federal Emergency Management Agency loans.
"The AFT at the national level has been involved with the problems confronting the Virgin Islands . . . for quite a while now," Benjamin said.
He added that the national AFT is moving to connect with the AFL-CIO to discuss lobbying efforts. "They do have the clout and the power," he said.
Along with the V.I. government’s $1 billion debt it owes government workers, including 2,000-plus public school teachers, approximately $200 million in back pay since 1993.
The AFT’s efforts to lobby the White House on issues concerning the territory does have some precedent. Last month, at the behest of the V.I. Central Labor Council, United Steelworkers of America President George Becker met with White House officials to discuss the territory’s problems and the memorandum of understanding.
The document was signed by Gov. Charles Turnbull and Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt in early October and contained provisions designed to help the territory regain financial soundness. The memorandum, however, raised the fury of local labor unions because it contained language that suggested the governor restructure the territory’s public labor relations laws by June 30, 2000.
The memorandum stated that the territory’s general fund deficits of recent years have been aggravated significantly by "collective bargaining agreements, where by (government of the Virgin Islands) employees enjoy greater bargaining rights than those enjoyed by federal employees."
But after Becker’s visit at the White House, the wording in the memorandum was softened and encouraged "collective bargaining reform initiatives" between the unions and the government as a way to help with the financial problems.
During Becker and the CLC’s meeting with White House officials, financial issues aimed at increasing revenue to the territory were raised. Those included the need for the federal government to continue the current level of the rum excise tax past December’s expiration date and the return of gasoline excise taxes from HOVENSA.
Benjamin said the AFT’s effort will touch on those and additional points, including more federal aid and the relief of FEMA loans. If the V.I.’s $200 million FEMA Community Disaster Loan isn’t forgiven, the territory will have to start making annual payments of $25 million beginning in 2001.
"And, of course, we’d like to see an outright grant coming from the federal government," Benjamin said.

Following the success of local labor to have the memorandum of understanding amended through lobbying by the United Steelworkers of America, the territory’s teachers union is tapping its national organization to lobby for federal financial help.
Cecil Benjamin, president of the St. Croix chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said that the national AFT, an affiliate of the 13 million-member AFL-CIO, has formed a task force to lobby federal help for the territory. Benjamin said the focus will be on increasing federal aid, a return of excise taxes on petroleum products produced at HOVENSA and the forgiveness of Federal Emergency Management Agency loans.
"The AFT at the national level has been involved with the problems confronting the Virgin Islands . . . for quite a while now," Benjamin said.
He added that the national AFT is moving to connect with the AFL-CIO to discuss lobbying efforts. "They do have the clout and the power," he said.
Along with the V.I. government’s $1 billion debt, it owes government workers, including 2,000-plus public school teachers, approximately $200 million in salary increases dating back to 1993.
The AFT’s efforts to lobby the White House on issues concerning the territory does have some precedent. Last month, at the behest of the V.I. Central Labor Council, United Steelworkers of America President George Becker met with White House officials to discuss the territory’s problems and the memorandum of understanding.
That document was signed by Gov. Charles Turnbull and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in early October and contained provisions designed to help the territory regain financial soundness. The memorandum, however, infuriated local labor unions because it contained language that suggested the governor restructure the territory’s public labor relations laws by June 30, 2000.
The memorandum stated that the territory’s general fund deficits of recent years have been aggravated significantly by "collective bargaining agreements, whereby (government of the Virgin Islands) employees enjoy greater bargaining rights than those enjoyed by federal employees."
But after Becker’s visit at the White House, the wording in the memorandum was softened and encouraged "collective bargaining reform initiatives" between the unions and the government as a way to help with the financial problems.
During Becker and the CLC’s meeting with White House officials, financial issues aimed at increasing revenue to the territory were raised. Those included the need for the federal government to continue the current level of the rum-excise tax past December’s expiration date and the return of gasoline excise taxes from HOVENSA.
Benjamin said the AFT’s effort will touch on those and additional points, including more federal aid and the relief of FEMA loans. If the V.I.’s $200 million FEMA Community Disaster Loan isn’t forgiven, the territory will have to start making annual payments of $25 million beginning in 2001.
"And, of course, we’d like to see an outright grant coming from the federal government," Benjamin said.

Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg wants Gov. Charles Turnbull to hurry up and submit nominees for the Public Services Commission to the Legislature– and he doesn't want the name of Walter Challenger to be among them.
In a letter dated Nov. 3 and released to the media on Wednesday, Donastorg told the governor he was "shocked" to learn that Turnbull planned to reappoint Challenger, the current commission chair, whose term has expired but who continues to serve, like other in similar situations, until a replacement is named.
Donastorg called on the governor "to clean up this commission and begin to reverse the many years of wrongdoing," claiming that Virgin Islanders "have been overcharged and treated poorly by this territory's companies as a result of the PSC."
The senator said he had sent four previous letters asking that the governor submit nominees to the commission but that to date none have come down.
Reappointing Challenger, Donastorg wrote, would confirm "your official involvement in the conspiracy to protect the ICC companies from government scrutiny. . . blatantly facilitating government corruption and corporate greed" at public expense."
ICC is the acronym for Innovative Communication Corp., the parent company of the Virgin Islands Telephone Corp. and the territory's two cable television companies, all of which fall under PSC scrutiny, and other telecommunications enterprises, all owned by Jeffrey Prosser. Under Challenger's chairmanship, the PSC has on several occasions sided with Vitelco in disputes over proposed rate changes, rejecting the advice of its longtime mainland consultant and prompting its local counsel, Maria Tankenson Hodge, to resign.
The commission chair "has been at the very heart of the controversies that plague this troubled body," the senator wrote, arguing that PSC "unorthodox and anti-consumer actions. . . have been unethical at best."

The University of the Virgin Islands will add another course to its on-line offerings with a creative writing course in Spring 2000. Patricia Harkins-Pierre of UVI’s Humanities Division will be teaching the class. For this first time presentation, the class enrollment will be limited to residents in the territory.
Distance Education is a growing trend in education today, with scores of universities world-wide adding classes that can be accessed through your computer from the privacy of one’s home or office. Many of these classes are administered strictly through web-based instruction and assignments, with e-mail communication with the professors. Other variations include an infrequent visit to campus and video or tele-conferences.
The UVI class, English 465: Selected Topics – Creative Writing, will include the study of language and literature. Students will be challenged, through various reading and writing assignments, to become critical of their own work and that of other writers of poetry, fiction and drama. Part of the class requirements include the student’s completion of poems, short stories and a one-act play.
Students will purchase a text book and course outlines, goals and assignments will be provided through the WEBSITE and e-mail communications. Students will either fax or e-mail their assignments to the instructor. There is no in-class time required.
“I’m looking forward to the class," said Harkins-Pierre. “I’ve been teaching

creative writing for about 20 years, but never on line. This is an exciting adventure."
Harkins-Pierre said that her hope is that people who may have been unable to come to campus or couldn’t enroll at the time the class was offered before, will enroll in the on-line course. “I look forward to people on St. Croix and St. John enrolling in the class," she said.
The full course outline will be available on-line prior to the Spring semester and students will go through the usual registration procedure at UVI’s Enrollment Management Office. For further details on the on-line course, call Harkins-Pierre at 693-1357 or fax inquiries to her attention at 693-1345. Preliminary details about the course are available on her personal home page by clicking here.

UVI freshmen will meet at 12:10 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 10, in room #302 of the CA Building.
For further information or in the event you are unable to attend, contact the Student Activities office at 693-1111.

UVI sophomores will meet at 12:10 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 9, in room #302 of the CA Building.
For further information or in the event you are unable to attend, please contact the Student Activities Office at 693-1111.

UVI juniors are to meet at 12:10 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 8, in the CA Building, room #302.
For further information or in the event you are unable to attend, contact the Student Activities Office at 693-1111.

Seniors at UVI are to meet at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 7, at the CA Building, room #302.
for further information or in the event you are unable to attend, contact the Student Activities Office at 693-1111.

The V.I. government Thursday received $1 million of a $5.3 million criminal fine levied against Hess Oil of the Virgin Islands Corp. three years ago for violating federal environmental laws.
At a press conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office on St. Thomas Thursday, Gov. Charles Turnbull was presented with the territory’s share of a $2.3 million restitution plan paid by HOVIC in 1996 in addition to a $3 million penalty. The $1 million will be used at the territory’s two landfills and to develop a used-oil management program, Turnbull said.
"This will go a long way to assist the territory to address the less than satisfactory landfills," Turnbull said.
In 1996, HOVIC admitted to illegally shipping more than 300 tons of benzene-tainted waste to an Arizona cement factory in containers marked as "non-hazardous." Federal officials said that between Dec. 11, 1991 and Feb. 9, 1992, employees knowingly shipped approximately 1,400, 55-gallon drums containing spent refinery catalyst that exceeded the federal limits for benzene.
U.S. Attorney James Hurd Jr. said the reason why the government hadn’t received its portion of the fine sooner was because Turnbull’s predecessor never submitted a plan that explained how the money would be used. Hurd said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reviewed the current administration’s plan and then it was accepted by the District Court judge overseeing the case.
According to Department of Public Works Commissioner Harold Thompson, the money will be used to remove hazardous waste material and conduct groundwater monitoring at the Bovoni and Anguilla landfills. He added that the proceeds of the fine will also help the department operate its used-oil collection program, which receives approximately 3,000 gallons of used oil each month from island residents.
"This money will help us add to and improve our collection centers and testing," Thompson said.
The EPA has mandated that the government implement a comprehensive solid waste management program to address the problems at the landfills. Over the last decade the Bovoni Landfill on St. Thomas has had reoccurring methane gas fires, and neighbors have complained of various ailments caused by heavy smoke. There also is concern that runoff from the landfill is harming an adjacent lagoon that is home to one of the territory’s last mangrove forests, which also serves as a breeding ground for a variety of marine life.
On St. Croix, the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the government to shut down the Anguilla dump by December 2001 because birds attracted to the site pose a hazard to aircraft at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
"With the case we just solved here, we’ll jump-start further environmental projects like the landfills," said Carl-Axel Soderberg, EPA director of the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.
The State of Arizona received $1 million from the fine, while Texas was granted $300,000.

When STARfest V took to the Reichhold Center for the Arts stage last May, the crew of the Digital Video Institute based at the center was hard at work recording the sights and sounds from start to finish.
On Wednesday, Nov. 10, they'll show the recording on the theater's big cinema-size screen. The public's invited, and admission is free.
Begun and directed annually by Reichhold director David Edgecombe, the annual local talent revue reached its pinnacle of production professionalism this year, with elaborate staging, lighting, choreography and back-screen image projection. But after three nights of performances, it was history.
Except it's not. Now, thanks to DVI, those who saw it and would love to see it again can do so, and those who missed it have another opportunity to see it after all.
The performers: vocalists Divina Nicole Muse Hart, Clarence Husband Jr., Switcha Kyat, Dwight "Bruniyah" Bruney, JoAnne "Jazzy JoJo" Saunders, Shadee Thomas, Jamila Connor and Jose "Robbie" Encarnacion; rapper Alford "Watambo" Richards Jr.; dancer Princess Penn; vocal ensembles Klymax and Ethnique; V.I. Institute of Performing Arts dancers and perennial master of ceremonies Robert Luke.
Curtain time is 7 p.m. and admission's free. To learn more, call 693-1559.