B.N.T.U. Executive Meets with Social Partners

Luke Palacio

On Monday, Palacio confirmed that the Union was meeting with other trade unions and social partners. One such meeting has already taken place. It was intended to be a rebuttal of Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s statement to the nation and the previous meetings, explained point by point. As Palacio tells us, the Union got a promise of support from its partners. He also made the point that the Government’s propaganda campaign gives the lie to its claims that it is the Union who is trying to divide the country.

Luke Palacio, National President, B.N.T.U.

“And we made it absolutely clear to those present that we did not expect them last night to say how much support they are going to give, what the type of support is because in some instances we know that they have to go back to their organizations to determine what form of support they will give. But generally speaking, there was general support from those present in terms of yes, these are national issues, important issues and we should be able to weigh in. There were of course a few who openly said yes, we are with the teachers, we support what you are doing because we know that it is for the good of this country. And we are very pleased about that. We are going to keep the doors open for dialogue with all the social partners. We will ensure that we keep them updated—be it through emails or inviting them to meetings or they inviting us to meetings to speak to their membership or whatever stakeholder group. We see every minute the propaganda being aired and nobody has really stand up and said to the Prime Minister or to the government or to those supporting those actions, how much of taxpayers’ dollars is being spent on those ads that are being played on the air. We know that a minute of airtime is not cheap and the Prime Minister’s address is over nine minutes and in one day we are hearing it probably for ten times. And then you are going to look at us and say we don’t care about this country, we don’t care about our children, but you can be squandering the people’s money, trying to dissuade people and trying to be divisive at that…using terms that we are on a destructive crusade. We have said that this is a peaceful process. We are not going to ask and encourage anybody to try and do anything that would destroy this country simply because they are probably fed up of what is going on and would try to seize on this opportunity. We are not about that.”