Teachers Union concludes annual convention

“B.N.T.U – A driving Force For A Nation In Transition”, was the theme for the twenty eighth annual Convention of the Belize National Teachers’ Union. The meeting, which was held at the Crystal Palace Theatre in Orange Walk Town, was attended by over six hundred teachers from across the country. The two day convention, which started on Wednesday, focussed on a number of issues including the proposed education rules and the contract between Government and the unions, which was eventually signed following a 1993 salary dispute. The agreement, according to George Frazier, B.N.T.U.’s Administrative Secretary, included a package deal which was agreed to in November of 1996.

George Frazier, Administrative Secretary, B.N.T.U.

“Those included salary increases and other elements. For example, a promissory note or bonds, which all the ten thousand or so government paid employees, nurses, teachers, policemen, public officers, should be getting by the end of this month. Copies of a promissory note in which Government will be paying over the next three years all people who were on permanent staff, who work with Government during 1994/1995.

Also a bond, sorry – a trust deed. If you can recall between 1995 and 1997, Government imposed a wage freeze, which means that increments were not paid for those two years and to compensate, Government had agreed to turn over its four hundred and eighty thousand shares in B.T.L. to the employees. And the two unions, the P.S.U. and the B.N.T.U. will set up a trust like a committee or company that will use the interests of these things for a project that will benefit all government paid workers, whether they are union members or not. So these were some of the highlights along with resolutions. Every year we have resolutions that are passed.”

At the end of the meeting the participants agreed that the venue for the twenty ninth convention will be Dangriga Town.