Dear Editor,

By means of this letter, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to members of the board of WITU for supporting me during the last seven months. I arrived on St. Eustatius this past summer to become a teacher of English at the secondary school here, only to be immediately suspended and later fired for carrying my lip piercing.

Even though I was hardly a member of the union for a few weeks, Claire Elshot immediately looked into my case, gave me advice and later came to Statia to try and reach a middle ground between me and the school board.

When this proved unfruitful and I was fired, WITU hired and paid my lawyer and continued to stand by me with advice and moral support. Without the union, I would have given up a long time ago and moved back to Holland.

All through the intermediate case (kort geding) and the actual court case, WITU kept my head up high and helped me believe in my rights again when I was down.

Unfortunately, the judge saw matters differently, so now we might still have to appeal to a higher court to make sure it is known that teachers here – although we do not have the same legal protection from the Labour Office as "normal workers," are not without teeth.

No matter how this case will evolve, I owe a lot to WITU board and would like them to know that I have the greatest respect for their work.

Natasja Vuik

St. Eustatius