Will the government negotiate with the teacher’s union?

Dean Barrow

The Belize National Teachers’ Union says it has been trying since 2008 to sit around the table to re-negotiate its Collective Bargaining Agreement with government. But the B.N.T.U. has publicly revealed that it has had no luck getting an audience with the Ministry of Education and the Prime Minister and last week gave a one week deadline for action on pending issues. PM Barrow said on Wednesday that the union’s proposal will run the government more than a hundred and twenty million dollars over three years and that’s money that could be found because of the economic downturn.  Barrow reiterated that point today, but said he is willing to meet with the unions as long as they are willing to be reasonable.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“There cannot be a problem with that. Obviously, there was some miscommunication with them and the inter-ministerial committee that is charged with in fact conducting the negotiations with them. We’ve heard the back and forth where government’s side said the union side had not provided all the required information. Well, it’s time to move beyond that. To me it is important that these people not be disrespected and if they feel that government is simply ignoring them or that government is playing the fool and trying to dodge them, then they would have a right to feel disrespected and that is not the intention at all. So I see no reason why there cannot be an early meeting. On the other hand, I have to repeat we are facing what I believe will be the most difficult year in the five year term of the U.D.P. in this next fiscal cycle. When that year is finished I think there will be a turnaround because so much of what’s happening here is related to world economic circumstances. But certainly in this period, there has to be understanding and patience and it cannot be reasonable for the unions to expect that anything like the kind of money they are seeking can be found. So let us talk but I think they have to come into the discussions with realistic expectations and a preparedness to recognize that they are part of a larger society that is going through some fundamentally difficult times as the world, as the region are going through difficult circumstances. We came into office and we restored the increment that was taken from them. But to ask us to go beyond that in terms of salary increases now simply is not realistic and I can’t make that point often enough.”