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Honourees and family members with dignitaries on Friday.

PHILIPSBURG--Three persons were honoured for their contributions to protect and champion workers’ rights in St. Maarten during a ceremony at Divi Little Bay Beach Resort on Labour Day, Friday, May 1.

Honoured were Windward Islands Federation of Labour (WIFOL, now Worker’s Institute for Organised Labour) former President Rene Richardson; Windward Islands Civil Servants Union/Private Sector Union (WICSU/PSU) former President the late Patricia Pantophlet; and former WICSU Administrative Secretary Sandra Mathew-White.

Pantophlet took an interest in trade unionism after moving to St. Maarten from her native Aruba and working in the Labour Department here. She joined WICSU and spent many years contributing to the protection of workers’ rights in St. Maarten. She is the only person to have served three consecutive terms as WICSU president.

Amongst other things, she played an active role in mobilising unions to protest against the wage gap between male and female workers, and helped coordinate a large demonstration against looming austerity measures recommended by the International Monetary Fund. She is also credited with being amongst those whose efforts led to the formation of the SER and the advisory body for matters related to civil servants GOA.

She also was affiliated with the Caribbean Postal Services Association; Public Service International; and St. Maarten Alzheimer’s Foundation; and was a founding member of Pantophlet Villa Foundation. She was also President of the trade union umbrella body Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Unions (WICLU).

Her recognition was accepted by her brother National Alliance (NA) Member of Parliament George Pantophlet and her nephew Riegnald “Bakari” Arrindell.

Richardson, who was active in politics from as early as the 1970s, is a founding member of WIFOL and served as its President. He was described as the “go to” man who never gave persons the “run-around.”

He held several political posts and served at one point as former Labour Commissioner. He bowed out of politics in 1995 and was appointed Chairman of the Social Economic Council SER board in 2010. He also was elected as a member of the board of the International Association of Economic and Social Councils.

“For me, my greatest contribution is not what I have done on the country level, but what I have accomplished for the labourers, for the people living within our communities – for it is those people that matter the most,” Richardson was quoted as saying in the honouree booklet circulated to attendees at Friday’s ceremony.

Aruba-born Mathew-White, who relocated to St. Maarten in 1979, was hired by WIFOL as an Administrative Secretary in 1980, a year after arriving on the island. As Administrative Secretary, she was an all-rounder who engaged in numerous tasks for the proper functioning of the union.

She served as coordinator of union matters; took care of WIFOL members’ complaints and grievances, and organised seminars, congresses, Labour Day celebrations and WIFOL’s Children’s Christmas party.

She was also involved in trade union negotiations, as well as in the overall construction and completion of the WIFOL building on Walter Nisbeth Road (Pondfill Road). She described the WIFOL building as “a great identity of successful trade unionism in St. Maarten.” She was once described as “the face” of WIFOL.

The honouring ceremony was themed: “Working for a better St. Maarten.”

Acting Labour Minister Rita Bourne-Gumbs, WICLU President Claire Elshot, Tripartite Committee employers’ representative Hubert Pantophlet and Youth Parliament President Dwayne Griffith were amongst those who addressed the attendees at the event.