What Happens If Unions Don’t Buy In to G.O.B.’s Proposal

John Briceño

One of the big stories for over a week now has been the response of the public service and teachers’ unions to the government’s proposed pay cuts and increment freeze. While there have been communications with the unions from the Financial Secretary Joseph Waight and the Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde as well as Education Minister Francis Fonseca, there seems to be a very different understanding of what the term “consultation” means.  And just how much power the unions have to resist the cuts and freeze.  Channel Five’s Open Your Eyes host Marleni Cuellar asked Prime Minister John Briceño on Thursday about the potential outcome if the unions don’t buy in to what the government is proposing.

Marleni Cuellar, Host, Open Your Eyes

“So what happens if there is a stalemate? What happens if any faction of the union says no?”

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Well I don’t think I… I really don’t want to go down that road right now. We have to move on; we have to present our budget. Because of the negotiations, the consultations we had, extensive consultations with everyone. So that people can fully appreciate what is in front of us, what we are facing as a country. We have to present our budget and we will have to be able to… at the end of the day, there has to be either the unions tell us to reduce the amount of government workers or they will take a pay cut.”