The Grenada Trades Union Council (GTUC) accuses Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell of making statements which it claims are “manifestly certified false” about the organization.
The Council’s claims follow Prime Minister Mitchell’s statement during a recently-held Town Hall meeting when he noted that as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader the labour leaders refused to meet with him and the NDC organization after he was elected Political Leader.
The Council explains that the initial correspondence was sent directly to the president and not the Council and the request for official correspondence was because “a personal e-mail to any member of its executive cannot be considered official correspondence.”
The Prime Minister in his utterances at the Town Hall meeting.
In a press release issued yesterday, the GTUC said it was never trying to avoid meeting with the leader or the political organization.
It says there is documented record of all correspondence between Dickon Mitchell and the GTUC making clear the picture of who was avoiding whom.
The release also points out that for the last six election cycles the GTUC has met with every major political party contending for office with the same format of, the parties formally making a request to meet as recorded in the council’s files, other than on this occasion when there was no meeting with the NDC or its leader.
According to the release, following the June 23General elections, the duly-elected Prime Minister invited all the Public Sector Unions and uniformed Service Associations (BUT THE GTUC) to a meeting for discussions on the NDC’s campaign promise to restore Pension in accordance with the ruling of the high court and those unions and associations were obligated to attend.
The GTUC went on to state that its leadership did not go running and begging to meet with the Prime Minister within “20 days of him becoming Prime Minister” as his statement appears to suggest.
The Grenada Trades Union Council (GTUC) says it looks forward to engaging the government of Grenada, Prime Minister and other parties whenever the need arises to address workers issues.
