The much anticipated Southside Poverty Alleviation Project is about to take on a visible presence in the old capital. On Wednesday, four contracts were signed for infrastructural improvements in the Collet, Port Loyola, and Lake Independence areas of the city. The work will include the paving and upgrading of roads and sidewalks, improved drainage, and […]
Meanwhile in Hopkins, that village’s water system will be upgraded through an increasingly popular model involving a partnership between the local water board and a private developer. The one hundred and eighty-nine thousand dollar project will refurbish an existing well, construct two new wells, install pumps, and lay over two miles of PVC pipe. The […]
In news from the labour front, today the Belize Communication Workers Union issued a press release complaining that despite plans for the scheduled arbitration to proceed on Monday morning, they have yet to receive the necessary terms of reference. According to the release, the union has appointed a former Labour Commissioner, Winston Carr, as their […]
It appears that things may finally be working out between the Belize City Council and the Ministry of Works at the garbage dump at mile two and a half on the Western Highway. Not only has M.O.W’s heavy equipment returned to the site, clearing the roadside of all the accumulated debris, but the construction on […]
It might have gone unnoticed given the protest rally in Belmopan but on Friday, the Minister of Labour was to have been presented with a comprehensive report regarding the firing of Christine Perriott from Belize Telecommunications Limited. The National Trade Union Congress of Belize issued a press release to that effect this morning but our […]
The Young Men’s Christian Association has been quietly assisting a number of Belizean children with their primary school education. Presently the after school programme caters to fifty youths whose families would not be able to afford the extra help for boys and girls who may be struggling with their schoolwork. These students not only benefit […]
Belize’s labour unions will be demonstrating in Belmopan this Friday. According to a release from the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, the protest rally will coincide with the second day of budget debate in the House of Representatives. The N.T.U.C.B. is calling on all workers to support the action, which seeks the reinstatement of […]
The Liberty Children’s Home has embarked on its most ambitious fund raising drive ever. On May nineteenth, a lucky family will receive the keys to a brand new three bedroom concrete house in Vista Del Mar. Proceeds of the raffle will be used to help provide for the needs of the home’s young residents who […]
Today is being observed globally as International Women’s Day … and if this year’s observance seems a little more important than in year’s past, it’s because in recent months the issue of violence against women has hit Belize like a shotgun blast. In late 2006 and early 2007, no less than three women were brutally […]
His offer to help Christine Perriott was emphatically spurned by the unions and his entreaties to B.T.L.’s management were dismissed as political grandstanding. That makes Labour Minister Francis Fonseca very much a man in the middle, a veritable U.N. peacekeeper standing between Hezbollah and the Israeli army. Today Fonseca told reporters that the N.T.U.C.B. is […]
It started as an almost routine union protest over the dismissal of three employees at Belize Telecommunications Limited. Over a month after those initial firings the growing intensity of the controversy makes it look like a train wreck just waiting to happen. News Five’s Janelle Chanona has the latest from the union camp. Rene Gomez, […]
The growing dispute between labour and management over the firing of four B.T.L. employees is heading for a showdown. “Our demands were not met,” says a release from the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, which has scheduled a press conference for Wednesday to announce their next course of action. Those demands, issued Friday to […]
On Friday we reported that the National Trade Union Congress of Belize had given Government an ultimatum that if it did not take action resulting in the reinstatement of Christine Perriott and three other fired B.T.L. employees some, unspecified act of retribution would take place. Well, at news time Perriott and her three colleagues remain […]
Today union activists upped the ante in the continuing face off between Belize Telecommunications Limited and the local labour movement, with executives publicly setting a deadline for the reinstatement of all four fired employees. But as News Five’s Kendra Griffith reports, it’s unclear what will happen when the timeline expires. Kendra Griffith, Reporting At noon […]
Bright and early tomorrow morning Women=s Week will officially begin with a bike ride into the old capital. The event, like others planned over the next seven days, is designed to bring awareness and change to the disturbing issue of domestic violence. News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin reports. Icilda Humes, Human Dev. Coordinator, Women’s Dept. “There […]
This weekend the Rotary Club of Belize will be hosting its second annual Boat show and sale. The event is the organization’s biggest fund raising drive with proceeds dedicated to the club’s Gift of Life Programme. The Gift of Life initiative makes it possible for needy children to receive life saving heart operations abroad. According […]
The press releases started flooding our newsroom almost before the ink was dry on Christine Perriott’s termination letter. The PUP’s reached first and their condemnation of her firing barely made it on yesterday’s newscast. Similar sentiments were echoed shortly afterwards by the U.D.P. and V.I.P., not to mention a host of unions and other organisations. […]
Tonight the Belize Communication Workers Union is reeling from the news that its General Secretary Christine Perriott has been fired. According to Perriott, this morning she filed three grievances against Belize Telecommunications Limited, one involving what she referred to as “threats” directed at her by management. Just hours later, she says she was summoned to […]
While Janelle Chanona was speaking to Christine Perriott on St. Thomas Street, News Five’s Stewart Krohn was on the phone to B.T.L executive Karen Bevans. According to Bevans, Perriott’s anti-management behaviour crossed the line and left the company no choice. Karen Bevans, Head of Business Dev./Marketing/P.R., B.T.L. ”Basically, the relationship between her and the company […]
It’s no secret that Belize City is running out of land. But what you may not know is just how fierce the competition has become. News Five’s Janelle Chanona has the story. Janelle Chanona, Reporting For several years the living and the dead have been locked in a land dispute at the Lord Ridge Cemetery, […]
In many instances, a group of women sitting down talking informally is dismissed as gossiping. But this week, a Belize City based organisation is hoping to capitalise on that social atmosphere to create an open space for women to address the issues facing their gender. The event is called a Speak Out and is the […]
One week before its presentation in the House of Representatives, this morning the National Economic Council met in Belize City to discuss the Musa administration’s budget for the financial year 2007-2008. The officials around the table included Prime Minister Said Musa, Deputy Prime Minister John Briceño, Minister of National Development Mark Espat, and Financial Secretary […]
If you were anticipating a labour strike in the local telecommunications industry today, you can relax because it didn’t happen. Turns out a technicality has pushed any plans for industrial action against B.T.L. to March fifth. According to executives of the Belize Communication Workers Union, talks with the company and Minister of Labour will continue […]
Late this evening, representatives of the Belize Communication Worker’s Union, B.T.L., and the Labour Department were meeting in last ditch talks aimed at averting a strike set for Thursday. The B.C.W.U. is protesting the dismissal of three employees without following the procedures set out in the collective bargaining agreement. A meeting between those same parties […]
It’s a growing story that’s not going to go away any time soon … and one that–for now at least–I take no pleasure in reporting. Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting The only movement that has been going on at the city’s dump site at mile three on the Western Highway is a very large pile of garbage […]
