General Secretary of the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU), Thomas Letang has said that PSU members have the right to select candidates who are best equipped to manage the affairs of the country.
Speaking at news conference on Thursday 9th May, 2019, Letang said two brochures have been created to re-enforce DPSU’s democratic values.
“As a union, we believe we have a right, not to tell our members who to vote for, but we have a right to provide some guidelines to our members,” he said.
“Therefore, we have prepared a brochure which is written as part of the effort to PSU to re-enforce our democratic values for creating interest in the issues involved in voting and to help the Dominican people who are eligible to vote to exercise that duty with care, integrity and confidence,” Letang stated.
He elaborated, “Public sector employees and citizens in general must cast their vote for leadership that is committed to making their life better by showing willingness to address issues aimed at national development. Better salary and wages and improved working conditions should be given priority. ” he said. “Vote a government which is willing to listen to, and respect your union and to negotiate in good faith and within reasonable time. It is wrong to accept bribes for your vote. Your government should be willing to address the problem of large numbers of public officers who have not been appointed after many years in this service.”
Letang said politics affects every conceivable aspect of Dominica’s development and encouraged a free and fair general election.
Letang pointed out that the minimum wage of Dominica has been the same for the past 21 years and has been trying to get this matter of salary negotiations to begin, stating that the only development made in that regard was the letter of acknowledgement of their proposals to the government.
He said that on numerous occasions letters have been written to the relevant authorities and the prime minister of the various issues that affect public officers.
“As far it applies to nurses, transportation to work, security concerns, concerns at the Princess Magret Hospital (PMH) and various health centers, teachers, the questions of appointment, fire officers’ appointments, conditions of work, protective equipment, building conditions, poor living conditions, the question of salaries and the list goes on,” Letang explained.
The PSU General Secretary went on to say that the Prime Minister has been meeting with public officers to discuss “personal matters” without the PSU general body stating that it is “unheard “of in the history of the Caribbean that any Prime Minister can function as an employer of the public service.
Members of the PSU will hold a briefing on May 23rd , 2019 where decisions will be made on their next course of action.
This is a free country and Mr. Letang has a right to freedom of expression; businessmen in the private sector do likewise whenever election is around the corner.
There are other concerns that should be addressed as well – for example, it is over 40 years now the elevator at Government Headquarters is non-operational. Public Officers including drivers, messengers, and technicians have to walk up to four floors with load – ladders, office furniture, computers, printers, wholesale stationary, and all other heavy objects. That cannot be right. If a public officer from the Ministry of Health has a leg injury or an Officer from the CPO’s Office has a temporary walking disability what happens to the welfare of these officers?
The toilets are in a deplorable condition and public officers including PS have to share these with the Public while Ministers have private washroom facilities in tip top shape plus canteen supplies and officers have to scrunt ; no first aid kits inside there…
EXACTLY… Thomas Letang is expressing his democratic right to throw his support behind who he wants to support. What is annoying is his pretentious attitude and his claims that he is non-partisan. He clearly is leaning towards the party he supports. His concerns are valid. But he is using very valid and very real concerns of the people to push his parties political campaign. It is clear as day that this is what he is doing. If you realize strategically when these “meetings” and his “campaign for the better conditions for the public workers of the land”. It is quite evident. But don’t push it as one of non-partisanship agenda when it clearly is. All’s fair in love and war; be real about it.
Lol. Zor pay easy. If you accept that the issues Mr. Letang raised are valid the what really is the problem?
i personally think Mr.Letang should be removed from the DPSU, a union he believe is his person business, when he is getting paid to represent the workers.
Why don’t he declare his self a UWP candidate and ask for some of what money Lennox got.
well, he knows he cannot win a seat for UWP
So guess what!! Lennox has all his money he collect tight for when he lose, he can continue running around with his family.
Latang!! The money our prime minister has been going all over to beg for (that how all you all always put it) is alway in the news, on facebook and on TV.
That is how transparent my prime minister is.
Letang! you hearing off all the billion,er!
You are not hearing of Lennox own, er!
My boy!!! who give you that authority to demand that the prime minister to stop meeting with the workers he is working so hard to make sure they get paid very month end and more so create avenues that they can access funds easier to create a better living for their families and Dominica on a…
Bwa- Bandy.Paid for what ,Labour has been in power since 2000.It is Thomas THE BALLS Letang who is being paid for USING the Civil Servants to make political milage for his party the UWP.
The DLP is an existential threat to the future of Dominica. They bulldozed the economy, sold the national birds, wiped out the middle class, decimated agriculture, underpay the civil servants, give pittance to pensioners and splintered every community. Sustainable employment, reliable healthcare, sound security has become so elusive. Nineteen years of hardships and severe sufferings is more than enough.
DNO will publish all kinds of BS against the Prime Minister and Labour Party.When is Lennox Linton and UWP they go moomoo.
Thomas THE BALLS Letang is a supporter of the UWP.You will never be able to take down this Government.The masses do not support you.So stop fooling yourself.Where were you and the UWP after Maria.Dominica was broken but was put back together by the Labour Party.No Public Servant was sent home.At the next general election you and your party the UWP will pay.You cannot prevent the Prime Minister from engaging Public Servants.Lazy.
Whatever Thomas is smoking or drinking its not good for his mindset. The idea of telling members of a union which political party to vote for leads to disappointment at the end. When an individual is at the ballot box, the final decision is theirs. Not what a union says to do.
I think at 65 it’s time for Letang retire he pass the retirement age moons ago, he should do the honourable thing and make way for younger blood!!!!
That message also goes out to the WAWU General Secretary Mr. Augustus who is over 70… These people are HYPOCRITES pretending to love the youth but refusing to retire and now playing politics!!!!
Now when I say this man Letang, is a two heads 🐍 snake that is what I am referring at. This guy could never be trusted and should not be treated lightly – One love forward Labour Party.
Mr Man, first of all I find the Letang assumption that civil servants and government workers do not have the competence to vote intelligently is an insult.
That is the biggest insult to a group that contains the most educated and most professional people in the country. Is he accusing the civil service of incompetence ? Why the pretense that this is a trade union negotiable matter . He is just too bias and unethical . HE SHOULD BE FIRED. He cannot use his official capacity for his political means and ends. He cannot use the civil servant as a political pressure group. He claims that the PM interfere in his business. The PM is the defacto head of the civil service. In fact any manager have the right and duty to talk to the members of the organization that he heads.
As an agent of the opposition he is showing contempt for the civil service and demonstrating a conflict of interest. Letang must go now!
The same applied to your president Charles S….. killed the country and see where he is sitting now.
A change is a must in this country of Dominica.
So that is the plan. A repeat of May 29, 1979. Letang is manipulating for the UWP with a quid pro quo promise to be president. I wonder how many victims of the UWP is guarantied the position of Prisident of Dominica.
Thanks Mr Brainstorm. You have shed a bright light on me.
Letang i’m certain you want us to elect the government that kept telling us at the end of every month….”computer breakdown” so we never got paid on time over a government that paid us a Double Bubble salary after the worse natural disaster in the history of Dominica (Hurricane Maria). You got your own agenda and not fooling anyone.
Letang must realize that he is not the head of the civil service. He is working for them not the other way around. His job is to represent and negotiate on their behalf, not to direct and order them around, like the tail wagging the Lion.
Well done Letang. While you cannot tell them who to vote for, the members should think of voting for leaders who love people, not for those leaders who like to see people poor!
S m g
S m g
L S mgn
Lennox the leader of the UWP is disqualified as he does not love people.
Well done in displaying duplicity and conflict of interest. Well done in attempting to turn the civil service into an opposition political pressure group. Well done in destroying the ethical concept that civil servants should not be the arm of any political party.
Letang has certainly over played his hands in assuming a position that he has a mandate to campaign for the UWP and to insult the most educated part of they nation, government workers, that they do not know how to carry out their civic duty . That he must instruct them like school graders. He should realize that he is their employee and not the other way around. The tail cannot wag the lion. He does not know his place and has gone too far so he should be dismissed. FIRED !
He cannot be like the jokers % and viewsexpress in making mischief . He cannot be allowed to turn civil servants into the laughing stock of the nation by opposition gangbangers and mobsters and looters.
Thank you Mr. Letang. You will get blows from those who have been paid to create illusions and spin reality to create a bamboozling effect but the electorate is now smarter in 2019. I applaud you and the PSU for not telling anyone who to vote but rather how to select the person/ team in the interest of country first. May jah bless you sir. Be assured that the spirit of the ancestors are very pleased with this approach.
Sounds kind of political, but the system is democratic so citizens should always be free to express themselves. However I think that Unions in DA are very weak. It was recently revealed that there are Bajans working for the DLP on the ground in constituencies in the East of the country. If that is indeed a fact the Unions should insist that these people leave and if they don’t shut down the country. Can you imagine what the Bajan people would do if Dominicans went to Barbados to work for political party there? Come on Dominicans…don’t be a footcloth for Skerrit