Was Dylan Reneau Booted Out of N.T.U.C.B.?

Dylan Reneau

There is a newly elected president of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize. That election took place over the weekend at the annual general meeting of the umbrella organization. The two-day meeting addressed several issues, including the nomination of CWU’s Secretary General, Floyd Neal to the Social Security Board and we’ll have that later in the newscast. But for some time now the former president, Dylan Reneau has not been seen at several events spearheaded by the N.T.U.C.B.  That gave rise to the question of his status in the N.T.U.C.B.? We posed that question to vice president, Adelaida Guerra and to Mora, who made it clear that it was for Reneau to answer. So we did, Reneau did not contest the election but was at the weekend meeting. We asked him about the elections and whether or not he was pushed out of the organization.

Dylan Reneau, Former President, N.T.U.C.B.

“On Saturday we had some work sessions which netted some good results and on Sunday we had the business session. Elected to the office of president is now Mister or Brother Marvin Mora. First vice remains as Sister Adelaida Guerra from B.N.T.U. and the second vice is Miss, Sister Audrey Matura Shepherd from the CWU.”

Duane Moody

“Sir, there has been comments that you had not surfaced at a lot of events that the N.T.U.C.B. held. Could you talk to us on that? What happened there? Why is it that they had “lost their trust in you?”

Dylan Reneau

“Well I don’t think they had lost their trust in me. I had explained to them that I am a finance officer in the Ministry of Education. We have the second largest budget in the government and as a finance officer, I had to be committed to ensuring that we prepare our budget and hence the reason I was missing at a lot of the events. Now our structure is so robust that we have two other vice presidents that held over quite admirably—both Brother Mora and Sister Guerra—held over and did a very good job of maintaining the presence of the N.T.U.C.B. at whatever forums we had set up.”

Duane Moody

“Sir now I understand that you did not contest your post. Why did you feel that you had to back out?”

Dylan Reneau

“Well, the truth is I’ve been in the trade union movement for over twelve years. And I think that it was just time for me to step away, find a new challenge and give younger blood a chance to do what needs to be done. I think I’ve paid my penance, I’ve done my time and I feel comfortable walking away at this time. I think I tried my best over the past twelve years to do the best by the workers of this country and I don’t think there ever was a time that there was any conflict. I have a good working relationship with the government, with the business community and so I leave it at that. We’ll see what happens now that we have a new leader, Brother Mora and Sister Guerra and Sister Matura-Shepherd and we will see if there will be any serious transformation of the way we do business.”

At this time, Reneau remains the representative of the Public Service Union on the N.T.U.C.B.