Day four of Belize Maintenance Limited strike
Earlier in the day, Belize Maintenance Limited workers who have been sent home continued their protest in front of City Hall. They blame their woes on the City Council for not paying their employer a two point seven million dollar debt. Not only are they angry with the council, they place responsibility squarely on the shoulders of Mayor Moya Flowers saying she is in charge of the finance portfolio. They intend to return to City Hall on Monday and as another week of their unemployment ends, emotions were fever high.
Elise Samuels, Protestor
“We come get an honest living. We put fi we pride behind we and push wheel barrow fi just feed fi we pickney dehn. You understand weh I di come from? And dehn tek advantage ah we. dehn tek we fi granted out yah mein. We have to do something bout dat. I just hope dehn pay we di money in time. We need fi we money. Dat’s all we di ask fah, di money. Dat’s all we want nothing else, nothing more; we money cause everybody di suffah out yah. I di tell Zenaida she dah wah woman like we and ih got wah kid like we. Fi she pickney born wid gold spoon in ah ih mouth. Fi we one no born wid no gold spoon in ih mouth. We have to labour out yah fi get fi we money and all we want dah wi money. Wi money fi everybody.”
Lincoln Vaughn, Protestor
“Some time end of month bill right now I can’t meet that; light bill, wata bill, cable bill. Look yah, dehn done cut me out in fact. So I just want dehn come to dehn realization and memba, dah we poor people put dehn deh and we cud take dehn down too.”
Omar King, Protestor
“Miss Moya remember you have pickney and when you di punish one you di punish all because memba one ah these days your kid wah grow up and you know, if ih come out ah you, you wouldn’t want si ah punish like how you di punish fi we children. When fi we children can’t go dah school, dah we dehn cry to. When dehn noh got food fi eat, dah we dehn cry to. When we can’t pay fi we bills, dah we tek di lick. When we can’t pay fi we house rent fi we landlord wah put we pan di street. When we fi we pickney cry hungry, who ih wah cry to? Ih can’t go cry to you because you di punish we.”
Faith Flores, Protestor
“Zenaida what goes around comes around. Just like how you dig up into Fonseca dirt ih stealing. And Musa tell unnu di same thing. “Don’t watch me watch unuself.” And it is happening right now.”
Lalo
“Unnu know what da click clock chak? Ah? Alright good. Unnu no wah go haul out no click clock glan blam neither. Unnu just come up and mek unnu pa di people dehn weh di do dis job yah because dah only dehn di do dis. And unnu noh even think bout other workers and different party could do dis, because we been doing dis. Unnu want know how much years? From City Council days we have workers out yah weh know dis, weh noh di talk bout dis, weh know dis, weh know di skills. We noh talk bout we just come yah and we know dis and we could try do dis. We do dis fi many years from before it was privatized, it was government and it was still like dis and ih still get worsa.”
Jose Sanchez
“How long are you willing to keep this up? The council says it is broke.”
Jeffery Trapp, Supervisor
“As long as we have the strength we want to continue come out here and protest. My thing is in the midst of their political games the people di suffa out yah. No one seems to understand the cries of these people. This is oppression. Dehn di oppress these people and they need to change this. The Prime minister needs to step in and deal with this problem. Mek sure dehn workers get their money. The councillors weh di get pay right now and they no di do nothing, they need to cut their salary. Some decision needs to be made. If the commercial building, if they will sell it for fourteen million, then they need to sell it.”
