N.T.U.C.B. Meets with the Media to Iron Advertising Wrinkle

The National Trade Union Congress of Belize convened a virtual meeting with the media this afternoon to discuss concerns and discontent over the airing of political ads taken out against the Belize National Teachers Union and the Public Service Union by the People’s United Party.  The ads are a first-of-its-kind offensive being taken against the trade unions amid the ongoing standoff involving the ten percent salary cut for teachers and public officers.  While the P.S.U. and B.N.T.U. have received considerable air time on all Belizean media, they say the ads being run on many stations are counter-narratives to the messages they are sending to the public.

Voice of: Clifford Martinez, Vice President, N.T.U.C.B.

“The objective of this discussion is and around the recent agitation that has come through our sister unions in their dissatisfaction with some of the ads that have been aired by the different media houses.  I think what needs to be understood and settled here is the responsibilities that we each have in terms of representing our individual organizations, representing our membership and then advocating and being responsible in sharing information through the different means that we choose to do so.”

Voice of: Gerald Henry, President, P.S.U.

“It is not so much coming from the angle of the reporting and covering the events that have been unfolding in the past few weeks.  We, or personally, I believe that the media has been, for the most part, very fair in its coverage.  They have at most times reached out to us to find out our side of the ills when the government makes certain statements in reaching out to us to confirm whether that is the case, or at least what is the angle that is coming from the unions which is certainly something that personally I appreciate.  I think the crux of the matter lies with the contents of the political ads that have been played on the media and sent in by the present administration and the fact that they have been, at the end of those ads they have been identified as paid political advertisements.  The issue that we have with that is that the unions are not political entities.”