ST. THOMAS: A report in the Virgin Islands Daily News said that Gov. John deJongh Jr. announced that 350 full-time government workers will be dismissed on Jan. 5, 2012 and additional waves of dismissals likely to take place before the end of January, bringing the total number out of work to about 1,000.
DeJongh said the firings are necessary because the V.I. Legislature rejected his proposal to shore up the $67.5 million Fiscal Year 2012 budget deficit and failed to come up with alternate proposals of its own. DeJongh stated that unless something more is done by the Senate to address the $67.5 million budget shortfall, he will end up dismissing a total of 2,600 government employees during the coming months.
According to the report in the VI Daily News, Eugene Irish, Seafarers International Union vice president, compared deJongh to Hitler. Irish said deJongh is not trustworthy and believes he is above the law. He said he does not see how the governor has legal authority to carry out mass terminations. "I think we have an out-of-control governor. I think we have an out-of-control government," Irish said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.