Union leader regards bonus paid to nurses as tantamount to Judas betraying Christ

KINGSTOWN (CMC):

The Public Service Union (PSU) is calling on the St Vincent and the Grenadines government to provide to all public sector workers the EC$500 (one EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) bonus, being given to nurses.

PSU President Elroy Boucher is also questioning whether the payment to nurses only is tantamount to Judas’ 30 pieces of silver for betraying Christ.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, speaking on a radio programme, said that he had spoken to Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves, authorising the payment of the EC$500 honorarium each to nurse.

But Boucher, whose union represents nurses, told reporters that the union “actually welcome a bonus or something” to the nurses who have been in the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic fight.

“We know they have been going through since 2019, when all of the other governments have found it within their hearts to recognise the hard work by all workers who are on the front line,” Boucher said, noting, however, that he was not sure that the honorarium “has to do with the reward for them toiling.

“I’m of the view that that is a reward for their decision not to participate in the strike action that was called,” he said, adding that nurses had decided, over several meetings, to withdraw their services in September.

“And it is a prime minister who went, when the nurses took the decision, and begged them not to – pleading all kinds of love and all that sorts of stuff – and when many of the nurses heeded his call, which is quite interesting, because it is as if he had a gun pointed at them. And they reacted by saying, ‘Stop, we’re gonna do this.’

“And then when you reach out to them, for whatever reason, many of them change their minds. And they decided they were not going to strike. In other words, he broke what would have been a very effective strike by the healthcare workers by his appeal.”

Boucher said he remembered that Gonsalves spoke on a radio programme after the strike saying that he would recognise the nurses for their dedication.

“I’m of the view that this $500 is a reward for that,” Boucher said.

“And to me, that is money that is tantamount to Judas betraying Christ. But that’s why we are here today,” he said, noting that public sector unions have brought a legal challenge against the government’s vaccine mandate.