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But with past president George Myvette acting as their representative, they proceeded to meet the government side. That included ministers Patrick Faber, Charles Gibson and Godwin Hulse as well as Financial Secretary Joe Waight and Economic Ambassador, Mark Espat. The meeting started promptly at ten and by 12:45 the Prime Minister walked downstairs to personally invite the 13 waiting media personnel from 6 media houses upstairs for a briefing. He gave the unions the floor - and here's what they said:..

Mervyn Blades, President PSU
"As you know we have a joint council along with the Prime Minister and we want to express that it was a cordial meeting, a lot of suggestions and concrete proposals were presented. We cannot go into the details of those proposals until we discuss it with our membership. However we must say that we want to thank the Prime Minister for having this cordial meeting and it was a mutual respect on both sides and so we will go back to our people before dispel anything to the media."

Luke Palacio, President BNTU
"Basically tomorrow our council of management will be meeting here at the Convention Hotel in Belmopan where we will then be presenting to our councils the proposals; the discussion and the matters we raised and we have again agreed that we will depending on their response be in touch with the Prime Minister to give him an update."

Jules Vasquez "Sir, you all entered this meeting with a significant problem that came out of the January 10th meeting. Are you all able to say if that problem of not entertaining salary adjustment at this time - if that problem still exist."

Luke Palacio, President BNTU
"I wouldn't say that the problem does not exist but basically we have agreed on a way forward with the proposals that have been made, we believe we will be able to at least we know that the doors are still open; we know that the negotiations will continue and again basically like the President of the Public Service Union has said we met in a cordial atmosphere and we believe that for good industrial relations we want to be able to back to our membership and then moved on from there."

Reporter
"Can anybody from the unions give us information as to why Mr. Castellanos is not here with you today?"

Luke Palacio, President BNTU
"Mr. Castellanos is the best person to answer that question."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Like what the two presidents have said, the meeting was extremely cordial and conducted on a basis of complete mutual respect and that was what was most important for me. I needed to signal very clearly to these gentlemen and ladies and to the nation that we view these union leaders, these social leaders as equal partners with the political leaders with the government in the process of moving this country forward. The substance of the discussions a part - the atmosphere was of utmost importance and I am very happy that we were able to behave throughout the meeting as the responsible leaders of this country that we all are."

And while everyone's body language seemed relaxed, there's no mistaking the less than cordial tone in Palacio's putdown of Castellanos. Like we said, he's the numbers man for the union side, but resigned from the negotiating team yesterday. We have confirmed that a letter from him did reach the Prime Minister today in which- he said he anticipates that he will be victimized and because of that he's withdrawing. Our sources say it may be for a different reasons, but more on that later.

Whatever the case, his resignation would seem to be a major loss, but the meeting appeared to have proceeded amicably without him - culminating in a surreal twist where - at the end of the briefing, the Prime Minister led the entire group: union, government and media in singing "Happy Birthday" for Teachers' Union senior advisor George Frazer. Here's how that odd moment played out:

And, if you can believe it, after that, there was even cake for Birthday George! But that wasn't cut until 4:30 pm when the meeting was finished after six and a half hours. As we understand it, the unions left with a commitment that government would be agreeable to tying any consideration for a pay raise for public officers to a surplus in revenues. The unions now have to take that to their boards of management, their executives and ultimately, their memberships for sanctioning.

That process begins tomorrow when the three executives, the APSSM, BNTU AND PSU meet in Belmopan. Today, though, George Myvette who represented the APSSM told 7news that today's meeting represented quote, "a giant leap forward" and added that quote, "there's a clear path ahead." It's now left to the wider union membership to see if they will adopt that path.

And so, while that's the news of the day, it's worth noting that - with expert finesse - the Prime Minister seemed to have defused a situation that was building to a head.

The only unresolved matter now appears to be the issue of Jose Castellanos - where did he disappear to and why? Well, first off, we tried to call and text him and got no response - which is the same thing that his union brethren told us they experienced yesterday. Second, when we checked at his office at the Ministry of Agriculture this afternoon, he wasn't in - and when we called to his section this morning, we got no answer. Third, in his letter of resignation, he writes about being denied leave, and some suspect administrative maneuvers. He seems to have concluded that he was being penalized for his union activism.

But, alternately, we are also told that he has applied for early retirement with benefits on medical grounds and - we are told - that was granted by a medical board earlier this week. Again, we could not reach him for comment on that. And while that tale hangs, right now, it's on to what's next and that's the government proposal for a surplus based wage increase. By Monday, we hope to know what is the Union's Executives initial reaction to that.