President Smith Calls Out PM Briceño on G.O.B. Proposals

Elena Smith

The small crowd of union protestors that were out today shouted no to government’s proposals.  This afternoon, before she entered today’s meeting with government officials, which is ongoing up to news time; President of the Belize National Teachers Union Elena Smith addressed protestors.  She wasted no time responding to the Prime Minister’s Facebook speech on Wednesday evening, challenging him to face the crowd.

Senator Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U.

“I am not going to waste any time to pretty up anything this afternoon. We know full well what happened yesterday. And we know the Prime Minister showed how cowardly he is, by going to the media, by putting a document that should have come to the joint unions for us to be able to review and take a position on it. He chose to go to the media via his whatever he did his address to say to us this is what we are providing. Why is it that he can’t do what we are doing? Why is it that he can’t face the crowd? Why can’t he face the press? Why can’t he have a press conference for the media to question him? Why is it that he did what he did? But is seems that the Prime Minister does have some talent. He finds some from somewhere. But if it is that he truly has talent, tell him to come and face the people. And so we want to make it very clear that the party that he represents it seems as if though they forgot where they came from and how they were formed. And it also seems that the Prime Minister forget the importance of unionism to our democracy. And for that reason he is trying to stifle our democracy by stifling our trade unions in this country.  Today is B.N.T.U., P.S.U. and A.P.S.S.M., and tomorrow it’s going to be the other unions. So when are we going to stand up to the tyrants that wants to think that they can come to us and say here, take it or leave it? Is that what we are prepared to do? No! Is that what we want to do? No!”