Lifetime employment

The news that Cable TV workers found themselves locked out despite a court ruling in their favor shows the limitations all workers in a post-Irma environment can and will be facing: lifetime employment is a thing of the past.

Other than starting their own business to provide the cable tv services that Telem may be willing to make use of, a workers cooperative may be the only solution for the workers to unite themselves under and provide their expertise to the market they have been working all these years in.

According to Wikipedia, Cooperatives may be classified as either worker, consumer, producer, purchasing or housing cooperatives. With a business losing customers to the internet, Roku boxes and even its copper cables to thieves, the long term employability of the workers is out of the question.

Ignoring the effects of hurricane Irma whereby cable connections went from 6000 to 2000, Cable TV SXM was already heading the way of the dinosaurs. Only its cable network and infrastructure is of value to Telem as it seeks to expand its fiber-optic network. The writing was on the wall for all to see and the workers were well advised to adapt to the market developments way ahead of time.

For those still holding on for Telem to do the right thing, it is just a matter of time before even they have to concede that when they do get the maximum settlement possible, they will still have to move on and find new employment elsewhere or take up a whole new occupation all together.

Therefore, an idea we would like to advise many workers on St. Maarten to consider in a post-Irma era, is the concept of a ‘workers cooperative‘. Other than taking your own destiny into your own hands, you will always be at the mercy of the market. At least in your own business, you will have the final say about its future.

We wish the Cable TV workers, the SMCU union and Telem management much wisdom, patience and reason the coming days.