Right now at the Holy Redeemer Parish Hall, the PSU and BNTU union leaders are meeting with their general membership to ask their support for the salary adjustment package put forward by the government last week Friday. The union Executives voted with an overwhelming majority to adopt it at a joint council meeting last Saturday in Belmopan.
This round of consultation with general membership in each district is the last stage in what has been a contentious negotiation over a salary increase. And while it could go either way from here - the temperature and the tone of the rhetoric on both sides has cooled substantially since last week's protest in Belmopan.
On the government side, the strong talk came from John Saldivar and Patrick Faber. And while it made for a tense week, the Prime Minister says that strategically, it may have been opportune:
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Maybe what happened before there was the meeting at my level was just as well because it meant that I could then intervene in a way which would dial down the rhetoric, and which would convince the unions that at my level - and clearly, the buck stops with me; I'm the ultimate backstop - I was absolutely serious about treating them as full and equal partners, and trying to work through this thing with them, on the basis though, of what was real. So, all's well that ends well."
Reporter
"Going forward to a resolution with the teachers, does it put you in a less-than-favorable position in your restructuring of the superbond?"
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"I am glad you asked that question. The IMF is here, and of course, the first they questioned officials about yesterday is what does this mean in terms of sustainability going forward. I believe that we were able to answer their questions. We have not yet heard from CDB, which is far more important than the IMF. The IMF isn't giving us anything. CDB has promised to assist with a policy-based loan to reach the financing gap that will still remain. Because though, the proposal confirms the position that they rolls cannot materializes unless we have the money to pay for it, I don't think it will affect us going forward. We hope to conclude the restructuring process, at least in so far as the official launch is concerned, by next Thursday. That is, we want to go to the House on Tuesday to try to pass a resolution authorizing the new offer, have the Senate deal with it, and then the formal launch will take place on Thursday, Valentine's Day. What may have been in jeopardy, I suggest, is financing from the IFI's, from people like the IDB and the World Bank, and so on. But, I believe that since it is clear that we're going to tax people, we're not going to try to find money - pluck money out of thin air, that the IFI's will be able to live the formula that we've agreed so far with the teachers."
We should know the result of that first general membership consultation by tomorrow. One union leader who wasn't there this evening was Jose Castellanos, the President of the Association of Public Service Senior Managers.
As has been widely reported, he pulled out of the negotiations last week citing a fear of victimization.
Today the Prime Minister discredited that justification by saying that Castellanos had put in for early retirement before he took up the presidency of the APSSM:
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"But Mr. Castellanos had applied to go off medically unfit so that he could get all his benefit from August of last year. He had discussed his request with this CEO, who said, 'Fine, then ministry will support it.' And the ministry formally did that in September of last year. He became president of the APSSM, I believe, in October, when he knew that his request to be medically boarded - if you can call it that - was already in train. When I got the letter that you had ask me about on the Thursday - at which point, I had not received it - on the Friday morning, I also got documentation that showed that the medical board before which he had appeared, had already ruled in favor of his going off medically unfit, had put up a formal recommendation that he be allowed to collect his benefits and leave. The Director of Health Services concurred with that recommendation either on the day before or the very Friday, when Mr. Castellanos send me his letter. So that, when his letter he says, 'I believe I'm being intimidated, and I am coming off the negotiating because, otherwise, the rest of my tenure over the next 2 years as president of the APSSM will be a kind of living hell for me, my God man, at that point, he knew that he was retiring from the government service at his instance. I find that a little bit off, to put it mildly."
And while we have texted and called for Castellanos to get his side of the story, he has not responded. But today our news team spotted him walking on Orange Street in Belize City. Monica Bodden asked him for a comment and he said that he will speak with the media next week.
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