The "Labor Summit" called for by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull in his State of the Territory address in January and scheduled for Monday and Tuesday has been postponed indefinitely.
The meeting was to focus on ways to pay the more than $200 million owed unionized government workers in retroactive wages.
Turnbull returned to the territory late Thursday from a 10-day trip to Washington, D.C., where he met with high-ranking federal officials. Upon his return, according to a Government House release, he met with his financial advisors to discuss possible new, but unspecified, economic information that could have some bearing on labor situation.
The release stated that the governor wanted to meet with his advisors before going into the labor meeting, and to have up-to-date information ready to present to the unions.
News of the postponement didn’t sit well with Cecil Benjamin, president of the St. Croix chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. Benjamin called the postponement a "slap in the face of all government workers" and said he will try to organize a government-wide strike in the near future.
He said that when Turnbull announced the labor summit, most union leaders were against the idea because of failed attempts in the past. But after a meeting late last month to discuss ground rules for the summit, he said, labor leaders warmed to the idea.
"Originally the AFT had not planned to go," Benjamin said. "We thought it would be a waste of time." But the preliminary meeting "was very encouraging, and we were prepared to do it."
Benjamin noted that it was the administration that called the summit, in an effort "to reach some sort of compromise." But now, he said, "Apparently they don’t have any proposal. They could have handled it better."
The Government House release said Turnbull "regretted the late notice of the postponement, but he felt it necessary to prevent the government from appearing at the summit with outdated financial information and projections."
"We are going to advocate to have government employees come together and shut this government down," he said.
Meantime, the administration’s chief labor negotiator, Karen Andrews, has been directed to work with the unions to reach agreement on a new date for the summit.
Central Labor Council president Luis "Tito" Morales couldn’t be reached for comment Friday evening.