Ever since March 13 when Shane Felix was a guest on Newsspin, the industrial action taken by the Saint Lucia Fire Service Association has been at the forefront of public discourse. This political carrion predictably had the usual vultures circling it, hoping to capitalise on the public’s notoriosly short memory. But the issues brought up by the SLFSA president are not new, as he has stated on numerous occasions. The political reactions are indicative of the reasons the problems persist. An example of this can be seen in the circumstances surrounding the commencement of the most recent round of talks with the government. As Felix said in a sit-down with me: “As soon as I walked out of the Newsspin interview with Timothy, I got the call. The labour minister was on the line.”
Since then, the SLFSA has had two meetings with government officials; one with the Labour Minister Stephenson King, the other with the Government Negotiating Team. King came out of last Friday’s meeting admitting the issues needed to be resolved, but also ominously stating his suspicion that the SLFSA’s industrial action is illegal.
At a March 18 press conference, King declared that “the Association has violated the collective agreement”. He cited article 32: “When any grievance arises, there shall be no interruption of work or other violation of this agreement of any kind on account thereof but the same shall be settled as promptly as possible.” King added: “It is to be determined whether the officers have indeed violated the agreement, which I believe they have.”
No surprise that the opposition party jumped in. At the SLP’s press conference on Wednesday, Philip J Pierre stated: “When the Fire Service went on strike for 14 days [in 2014], no minister in the Labour Party ever threatened them. This strike, as I understand, has been on for seven days and already you’ve heard the threats.”
Pierre also took the opportunity, to blame the current government for what is happening with the SLFSA. “I understand that there are issues with the Fire Service, but it’s this government’s incompetence, and this government’s haste, to condemn and reject anything that has been started by the Labour Party, that has put them in that position with the Fire Service.”
On the other hand, Felix told the STAR: “Some persons are trying to make this look political. However, this has spanned several administrations: Mr. King, Dr. Anthony, Dr. Vaughan Lewis and even our current prime minister. This has spanned over four decades and nothing has happened.”
On Wednesday, the opposition leader listed a number of measures he claimed the SLP administration had taken to improve working conditions for the fire service, including the transfer of the then fire chief after a 2013 Commission of Inquiry and the construction of a number of fire stations, most notably the one in Babonneau which Pierre claimed was abandoned for two years by the current government.
On Monday, Labour Minister King also referenced the Commission of Inquiry: “That report which was concluded in 2013 addressed a number of issues which certainly the past and present administrations have attempted to deal with.” He added, “In 2017 Cabinet again dealt with some aspects of the report, in which the department drew to the attention of Cabinet some issues to be cleared off.”
King concluded: “Some kind of movement seemed to have taken place since the Commission of Inquiry, which addressed issues from 1996 to 2012/13, issues addressed by the Department of the Public Service.” Despite all the work done to alleviate the SLFSA’s problems after the 2012/2013 Commission of Inquiry, as both King and Pierre would have you know, there was a two-week strike by the SLFSA in 2014. Recalling that industrial action, Felix declared: “The only thing that came out of that was the then Chief Fire Officer was retired in the public interest.
But that did not solve the issues of the fire service. The truth is the gentleman was sent home for violations he committed. The actual issues complained of, what senior officers can and cannot do, remain.” As for the “abandoned” Babonneau fire station, Felix lamented that though it “was constructed and completed, the authorites
were unable to staff it because we simply didn’t have the numbers. It’s like people are interested in political mileage. You hear them saying, ‘They gave us a fire station so we should vote for them.’ But that station was unmanned for almost a year. Even when we were able to man it, it wasn’t with the requisite staff. We were able only to replace staff that had left the department. That had no positive effect on the required numbers. We opened the station but without adequate staff.”
The SLFSA president told the STAR that the main issue fire officers want addressed is the promotions process: an issue highlighted both in a 1996 Management Audit Committee Report and in a 2016 Strategic Assessment Report on the Saint Lucia Fire Service presented by Local Partnerships LLP. On Monday, King acknowledged: “There seems to be quite a number of matters to be resolved, including a number of disciplinary actions and other shortcomings within the Department. My position is that we need to resolve them once and for all.” On the other hand, he said that while some of the resolutions “can be initiated immediately, we cannot
have a determination made in the short term. Some of them may call for consultation, some call for policy changes, some call for legal changes. For example, the matter to do with review of existing legislation—that takes a little time.”
It doesn’t appear that the promotion process issue, the SLFSA’s main bone of contention, is going to be resolved any time soon! Shane Felix has for nearly two weeks, enunciated the concerns of SLFSA officers; and all and sundry, including the politicians, have heard and responded. But clearly, they have not listened.
