ST. THOMAS – Food service workers at Joseph A. Gomez Elementary School held a demonstration this morning to protest their working conditions, specifically the sweltering heat in the kitchen due to an air conditioning unit that has been broken for months and windows that are sealed shut with Plexiglas.
“The heat is suffocating,” said Eugenia Douglas, who works in the kitchen at the school and participated in today’s demonstration. “To work in a kitchen where you use those big, like the kettles, the ovens, the dishwasher — they send out a lot of heat. So, if you don’t have the AC and the windows; there are plastics in front of the windows, so the air does not go out.”
Douglas said she and her colleagues have reported the problem numerous times to their supervisor as well as to the school’s principal in the three months since the air conditioning broke. She said while people have come and looked at it, nothing has been done to solve the problem.
“People are starting to get sick,” Douglas said. “One lady has already fainted. We get headaches every day we go home. I mean, we love our school, we love our children, we love our job, but sometimes you have to think of your health first.”
Yet Douglas and her colleagues ensured the students were fed, staging today’s demonstration between meal service.
“They prepared the breakfast, they came out, and they sat down, and demonstrated their concern for the situation they are experiencing,” said Kevin Challenger, the union representative for the United Industrial Workers of the Seafarers International Union, known as UIW-SIU. “After that, they went back in, they prepared the lunch, and they came back out and demonstrated their concerns.”
Despite the continuation of food service, Challenger said he had received reports from workers that they had been threatened with nonpayment by school management for their participation in the demonstration.
“Employees are telling me management is telling them that they are not going to get paid,” Challenger said. “I hope that’s not the case that is happening, or the union will take further action on that as well.”
Challenger, who stated that multiple kitchen staff have fainted from the hot working conditions, said the demonstration would continue until appropriate accommodations were made for the workers. He said multiple workers had passed out from the heat, and that the Department of Education’s previous remediation proposals had not been reasonable.
“What they told me is, like the workers can take breaks, cool down breaks, but that is not working,” Challenger said. “Because, you know, if they take those breaks and then go back into the kitchen, the condition is still the same.”
These conditions are not unique to the elementary school. The food service workers at Lockhart K-8 School on St. Thomas are also battling dangerous temperatures due to broken air conditioning in their kitchen. Challenger said if action was not taken to address the conditions today, the staff at Lockhart would join in the demonstration.
Working air conditioning, however, is still a ways away for both schools, according to a statement released by the Virgin Islands Department of Education following today’s demonstration.
Regarding the situation at Gomez Elementary, the VIDE stated that the Bureau of School Construction and Maintenance has been addressing challenges with the AC system. Despite ongoing efforts, including frequent repairs, the department said several factors have hindered the AC units from operating at full capacity. The VIDE stated one significant issue has been recurring power surges on the campus that have negatively impacted the performance of electrical equipment, including the AC units.
As part of the VIDE’s efforts to remedy the situation, the department stated that a new air conditioning unit was being procured for the school, but that installation could take another month once the unit is obtained. In the meantime, the release said maintenance crews would be on-site today to provide immediate relief measures, including replacing parts in the AC, installing a new thermostat, replacing the plastic screens in the kitchen with mesh wire to improve airflow, and purchasing fans.
A replacement air conditioning unit for Lockhart K-8 is apparently already on island. However, “logistical challenges have delayed its installation,” according to the Department of Education, which expects the new unit to be fully installed within the next two weeks. In the meantime, the department said additional fans would be purchased to improve airflow.
