P.S.U. President Caught on Tape Making Racist Comments Against Garifuna

The leadership of the Public Service Union is under fire tonight, following inflammatory remarks made against the Garifuna community by President Eldred Neal.  The seemingly disparaging comments were made during a recent conversation between Neal and other trade union executives, where he is heard making unsavory remarks about Garinagu members. Those references confirm what others in the P.S.U.’s council of management have been alleging, that Neal is on a witch-hunt to remove from that body members who are Garifuna.  News Five is in possession of that audio recording which has since prompted a letter endorsed by nine members of the council of management who are demanding that he tenders his resignation ahead of an upcoming annual general meeting.  The letter, dated May sixth, reads, “We are now in receipt of information which not only confirms the veracity of such statements but establishes that indeed you are engineering a plan to replace executive members of the council on the basis of their racial background.”  The conversation with Neal runs for approximately twelve minutes.  Due to the profanities in the dialogue, we will only air the following snippet.

Voice of: Eldrid Neal, President, Public Service Union

“I gaan da my AGM, and I like tell people because people noh listen to some conversations weh yoh have, I had to tek the time out around July last year when I gaan dah St. Vincent.  I spend all my night researching why the Garifunas da Belize behave how dehn behave and this da di only country weh dehn behave soh.  And you know weh happen?  And maybe we ought to start sending people from your unions to go to some of these big conferences that we go, you know why?  So dehn sih di real sh*t because they are di same Garifuna di behave di same way.  I gaan da wahn meeting last month and di mada f*ckas deh soh fix pan position, we deh eena wahn meeting di tell dehn dat unu come da this meeting and it’s unconstitutional for us to be at this meeting because we di have the big meeting da Geneva, for us to be at this meeting and not nominating who represents us.”

The stern letter to Neal acknowledges the severity of the matter and mentions the support he received from Garifuna constituents at the time of his election as president of the P.S.U.  It goes on to say, “you will therefore understand the deep sense of betrayal that is felt as a result of your statements and actions.  The last thing we would expect is that a leader of the Public Service Union would fan the flames of racial discord and intolerance.” News Five attempted to reach Neal for comment this evening but our request has gone unanswered.