J.U.N.T. and G.O.B.: A Tale of Two Agreements

The Joint Unions Negotiating Team held a press conference at the headquarters of the Belize National Teachers Union in Belize City.  During the briefing, B.N.T.U. National President, Senator Elena Smith brought to light several omissions that were made in government’s proposal last Thursday.  According to Smith, despite meeting with government representatives and agreeing on certain points, when Prime Minister John Briceño addressed the nation last week with G.O.B.’s latest offering, many of those agreements were noticeably missing.

Elena Smith

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

“There were also some other offers that were placed on the table and in our view we had reached agreement on, but the final document that we received saw a lot of those offers missing or they were not the same as the previous offer.  So we know that we have been told that pensioners would not be affected by this salary cut, but if the last document that we received that they are claiming to be the last document, the last offer, in that document nothing is mentioned about pensioners not being affected.  So is it that they will be or will not be because if that is your last offer or your final document and that document should have everything in it then that should be in there as well and that is not included in there.  As well, you heard the government speak about forbearance for loans and mortgage.  In our initial letter of March thirtieth, it was clear that the forbearance would have been not just for mortgages but it would have been not just limited to because we had discussed with them the matter of personal loans as well; however, when that letter came last week, that letter only spoke to residential mortgages.  We had also agreed that our collective bargaining agreement that we have been trying to conclude for the past over thirteen years now, that we would have been able to conclude that and it was agreed that that can be done within a three-month period and we were supposed to have our first meeting by May fifteenth.  That is not in that document either, we have not yet had that meeting that should have been scheduled by May fifteenth and so that’s another issue that we have because the CBA needs to conclude so that we can begin another CBA.  It has been over thirteen years now.”