Last night the Christian Worker's Union asked Prime Minister Said Musa to remove Social Security CEO Narda Garcia. Today SSB Chairman Yasin Shoman called the request "totally ridiculous and ludicrous."
In yesterday's release, the CWU asked that Garcia be suspended until a fair and transparent process can be established for selecting a CEO. This evening from his office in Corozal, Shoman told us that the request is ridiculous because a transparent and fair process is already in place. He says the social security reform commission proposed that the CEO be selected by a committee rather than the minister and that is how Garcia was selected. He said after the labor committee made their selection back in November, it was then taken to the Social Security Board for a general vote. He said at that meeting, Garcia's re- appointment was taken for the vote and the NTUCB's representative Horace Patnett voted for her. Shoman says that in his view, the CWU's release is an attempt to divert attention from stalled negotiations between social security workers and management over a new collective bargaining agreement. Shoman told us the old agreement came to an end in June of last year and a new one still is yet to be hammered out. CWU president Antonio Gonzalez is on leave and yesterday was unavailable to elaborate on the union's position yesterday. Shoman told us Garcia's contract ended December 31st of 2004 and her new 5-year contract began yesterday.
