Joint Unions Plot Way Forward After Senate Passes Budget

The Joint Unions Negotiating Team met this afternoon in an extended virtual session, following the passage of the 2021 Budget in the upper house on Wednesday.  The way forward for the Belize National Teachers Union, the Association of Public Service Senior Managers and the Public Service Union is uncertain.  Wednesday’s vote in the Senate has all but sealed the deal on the ten percent wage cut and increment freeze that teachers and public officers will receive for the next three years.  The unions are fighting tooth and nail to prevent the implementation of the salary adjustment and have proceeded with industrial action against the Government of Belize.  The effort, nonetheless, has been met with mixed reaction from the public, as the issue remains divisive topic amid the ongoing economic hardship the country is faced with.  News Five attempted on several occasions this evening to get a word from B.N.T.U. National President Elena Smith, but we were informed that the zoom meeting would run into overtime.  We will have more on the outcome of this evening’s meeting in Friday’s newscast.