B.T.L. and Union remain on collision course…
What began as a routine termination of employees of Belize Telecommunications Limited is now threatening to deteriorate into full scale industrial action on February twenty-second. Tonight executives of the Belize Communication Workers Union maintain that while B.T.L. can hire or fire at its discretion, it must do so within the terms of the collective bargaining agreement with the union. After discussions with B.T.L. management failed to resolve the matter of the termination of three union liaison officers, on February second the B.C.W.U. instituted a work to rule and issued notice of industrial action. Since then, B.T.L. has maintained its willingness to dialogue but contends that the union is refusing to meet with its appointed representatives. As the clock continues to count down to the twenty-one day deadline, there is a new player in the equation: American businessman Jeffrey Prosser. Prosser, the minority owner who was ousted as board chairman during legal wranglings with the Government of Belize, is reclaiming rights to the company based on rulings by the Belize Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal in his favour. Late last week Prosser formally announced a board meeting to be held at the Esquivel Telecom Centre this Friday morning. This afternoon General Secretary of the B.C.W.U. Christine Perriott told us that the entire situation has left employees with mixed feelings and none of them are good.
Christine Perriott, General Secretary, Belize Communication Workers Union
“This is creating…I won’t even know how to describe it. Many are getting, other than just upset, angry, and when I say angry I’ve never heard the anger I heard in many staff that is calling and want to know what is going on with this company? How far deh gwine fi show what, deh above the law, or pretend to be God. That is what is occurring on here. They are out there telling you all that everything is okay and we have a grievance to deal with but that’s not true. They know we don’t have a grievance, they know we have a trade dispute. They know the Minister has recognized it as a trade dispute but because they made the mistake they have done, now they want to take it out on the workers, and because Prosser is acting within his own right, given by the law, they want to step above the law, and this is simply what it is. They just sent out an employee bulletin threatening staff and their families and then at the end they have the audacity to say that they have us at their best interest…my golly!”
“The staff is only going to work with what is right. If Prosser is to come in, and he has that right by law, then we are going to work with him just as we have done with the Ashcroft Company. We still have our permitted person case that we are going to take to court and the Prosser group understands that. If they are prepared to work with us and Belizeans we have no problem with that. Because after all, and in the end, our plight is for the workers and Belizeans by extent. This company belong to the workers and to Belizeans.”
This afternoon B.T.L. management declined an on camera interview citing the sensitivity of the issue. However, B.T.L. General Manager Karen Bevans maintains that communication channels are open for union representatives to meet with the company’s Grievance Committee headed by Martha Molina and Arturo Vasquez. Today Perriott insisted that to meet with that body would detract from their position since the matter at hand is a trade dispute, not a grievance. To that, Bevans says the committee was appointed by management to handle to issue, be it trade dispute or otherwise, and as such the union should meet with the members who would then be able to recommend a suitable course of action if the matter is outside their capabilities.
Regarding the board meeting called by Prosser, a B.T.L. bulletin to employees has termed the move “absurd and without any validity whatsoever” and implies that if Prosser and any of his directors show up at company headquarters they will be barred from entering.
