Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Municipal Firefighters of São Vicente believe that they are being “deceived” by the mayor in relation to the resolution of several demands, such as career promotion and hiring of more staff. The peacekeepers accuse the mayor of Mindelo of not complying with three agreements already signed, said today the local coordinator of SIACSA, Heidy Ganeto.
“We already have three minutes of understanding to comply with and, when we go there, we are deceived. The City Hall is deceiving us and we point the finger at the president himself. But now we are going to fight and we will not give in to lies. We are open to dialogue, but we can no longer trust the City Hall. All the minutes are already in the hands of a lawyer to forward the case to the court”, he says.
The demands of the São Vicente Fire Department have already led the class to schedule several advance strike notices, some of which were called off after dialogue with the city hall. Heidy Ganeto mentions that the last three agreements date from 2022, 2023 and the last one on August 5, 2024. “The president’s intention was to find a way to suspend the strike. We have situations of delayed promotions since 2012, which constitutes a violation of the statute. We have a personnel deficit – at the moment, only eight employees are in service, the others are volunteers, when the law stipulates a corporation of 30 members as the minimum. Also the issue of meals, which should be provided in the zero hour shift until 8 am, continues not to be allocated to the corporation”, she points out.
Another issue reported by SIACSA has to do with alleged situations of moral harassment within the command itself.
“We disapprove of this and we call the mayor’s attention to finding ways to perhaps hear the firefighters and the union regarding the moral harassment created by the corporation’s commander. I don’t know if we can really ask for the commander’s suspension,” he says.
SIACSA understands that there is little political or administrative will from the City of São Vicente to solve the labor problems of firefighters.
For More News And Analysis About Cape verde Follow Africa-Press
