This Monday, April 15, 2024, the Ghislaine Rogers nursery school in Grand-Case was operating slowly following the strike by fifteen community agents who have been denouncing their poor working conditions for months.
To carry the voice of the agents, two unions were present at the demonstration, UTS UGTG Saint-Martin section and UNIT-978, respectively represented by secretaries Nicole Javois and Albert Blake. For the latter, it has been “more than a year since the agents requested improvements in working conditions”. In a letter addressed to the Directorate of Education of the Community of Saint-Martin on January 29, 2024, the staff of the Ghislaine Rogers nursery school once again spoke out about the dysfunctions of the school establishment as well as the poor working conditions and the dangers suffered by agents and children: overwhelming heat in classrooms without air conditioners, poorly performing fans, lack of a designated rest room or cafeteria (fridges, microwaves and ovens reserved for staff are installed in the children's dormitory which is no longer accessible during naps), no one to fill out the professional interview forms or to relay the documents sent by the COM, too few accompanying students with disabilities ( AESH), no room for the concierge, no functional washing machine for children's linens and accessories, no toilets for staff and too few toilets for children. The list grows with the smells of sewage that come up into the canteen where the toxic fumes are a danger for children, fumes accentuated in rainy weather. The diving room without air conditioning leads to particularly difficult conditions with the vapors released by the equipment. Faced with these various findings and the lack of reaction from the COM which had until April, after the Easter holidays, to react, the fifteen agents therefore decided to go on strike in order to show their discontent. The director of the school, Jean Todeschini, who himself sent a letter raising 23 points of grievance to the education department in October 2023 including the installation of a container for the management and teachers and the construction of a rain wall on the RN7, therefore had to send the little ones home. In a desire to reopen the dialogue, Médhi Boucard, Director of Education and Extracurriculars of the Saint-Martin Community, and Paul Dollin, Deputy General Director of the Community, went to the site this Monday morning to meet agents and union representatives. A visit to the education services was carried out on August 29, 2023 in order to list the issues but none of these points have been addressed or resolved since. According to Médhi Boucard, a debriefing of the situation took place with the education services and many grievances are the responsibility of another delegation from the Community. To be continued… _VX
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