Belize Energy Workers Union accuses BEL of union busting

Belize Electricity Limited has yet another fire to put out. Today President of the Belize Energy Worker’s Union, Sean Nicholas, issued a letter to C.E.O. Lynn Young alleging once again that the dismissal of six members of the union last year was indeed union busting. According to Nicholas, this time they’ve got proof. He cites that he has observed several times the running of the supposed decommissioned Magazine Road plant and the use of technicians as plant operators, outside the scope of their abilities. The closure had led to six employees becoming redundant, two of whom were executive members of the union. Nicholas says the fact that B.E.L. has had to reopen the plant proves that the company moved too quickly to decommission the plant and added, “we told you so.” They say that if the plant continues to be operated, they will be demanding the return of the six employees. BEWU says it will continue to monitor the situation and act accordingly.

Late this evening, a B.E.L. representative called to say that the utility had a project which required them to either rent equipment or temporarily restart the Magazine Road Plant. B.E.L. went with the cheaper option of restarting the plant for the next five to six weeks. The representative further stated that the plant has not been re-commissioned. Back in September, when the closure was making the news, B.E.L. said that the company started closing its diesel generating plants in 1990 in an effort to slowly reduce their dependency on oil.