Teachers Weigh Response to Salary Deduction Threat

News Five has confirmed with the Belize National Teachers’ Union that there is an intention by school managements to dock a day’s pay for teachers, between five and seven hundred of them countrywide, who attended the March twenty-second Belmopan rally against violence to women and children. We are told that managements intended to implement this decision for the end of April but it will not go into effect until the end of May.  B.N.T.U. National President Elena Smith has told us that the Union asked branches to vote on a course of action in response. That means either not participating in Teachers’ day activities this month, or withholding contributions to school managements for the remainder of the year. Smith says the union executive meets on Saturday where it will adopt a final decision. Teachers’ Day comes up on May eighteenth.