The PSU President also lamented what he asserts has been an emerging pattern of non-communication between the Joint Unions Negotiating Team and the Government's Negotiating Team.
This forum of open dialog between the government and the unions was established in 2020, when the new government cut the salaries of teachers and public officers by 10% for austerity reasons. It was supposed to be a summit that occurs every few months as a sort of reconciliation on how the government's revenues are performing. Also, it was supposed to double as an open line of communication between GOB and the unions, but according to the PSU President, the Briceno Government seems to have cut that line off:
Dean Flowers - President, Public Service Union
"The Office of the Prime Minister and the Government's Joint - or the Government Consultation Team continue to ignore the Joint Unions and continue to refuse to acknowledge receipt of communications from the Joint Unions. The Joint Unions did receive, I believe, a letter from the CEO in the Ministry of the Public Service, but the Joint Unions have never written to the CEO in the Ministry of the Public Service. So, I don't know what to make of that response because he's responded, acknowledging receipt of something that was never addressed to him. So, we don't know what to make of that. But, where the Office of the Prime Minister is concerned, and the office of the Government's Team is concerned, we're very concerned that for months now, despite our good-faith attempts to establish contact with the Government, have not been acknowledged. So, there is little that I can speak on as it relates to many of the outstanding issues that are yet to be addressed between the Joint Unions and the Government, including the long outstanding collective bargaining agreement, which we would like to see closed as soon as possible. From my end - and I speak as the President of the Public Service Union - this attitude of non-responsiveness and non-acknowledgment by the Office of the Prime Minister does not come as a surprise. This is one area where he has remained consistent."
