Unions Demand Answer for Inflation and Price Gouging

Dean Flowers

The unions also raised the issue of inflation and price gouging at today’s press conference. According to Flowers, most public servants fall within the lower income brackets of the government’s pay scale. As a result, Flowers contends that inflation and price coughing, coupled with frozen increments, are significantly affecting public servants. The joint unions are demanding that the Briceño Administration develop a mechanism to address this social issue immediately.

Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union

“This issue is significantly affected the Belizean public, including our members who form part of the lower income earners in our country. So, while we are proud to be called public officers and teachers, it should not be lost on the general public that our income is not in the higher echelon of society but rather in the lower income brackets. The vast majority of our members sit there. What concerns us also is the fact that fifty two percent of our population is living in poverty. Another eleven percent is considered vulnerable to poverty. That puts us as a country at sixty three percent of our people who are on the brink of being direly poor. What is even more alarming is that fifty-seven percent of our youths between the age of fifteen and twenty-four are poor and then as a country we wonder why crime is on the rise. I am sure you all have seen across the world where there have been several civil unrest. All the way in European, Latin America, and in Central America, and, we believe that if something is not done in Belize there may be social unrest coming.”