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Jules Vasquez
"The consultations are finished. Do you all have an answer for the Prime Minister Sir?"

Luke Palacio, President - BNTU
"We are working on the counter- proposal to the Prime Minister's proposal and those should be presented to him within the next two weeks."

Jules Vasquez
"As I understand it the deal is not for a counter-proposal. Your Council of Management accepted and I guess it's either a yes or no."

Luke Palacio, President - BNTU
"It was not a done deal. It was never a yes or no. What we said to the Prime Minister we accept the proposal, our Council of Management saw some merits in the proposal and we would be taking that back to our membership for them to give us their recommendations or suggestions and then we would come back with an answer."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you have an answer from the membership?"

Luke Palacio, President - BNTU
"We don't really have an answer from the membership per say. We have their recommendations. As we went around the country, we did our consultations and they have given us some recommendations/ suggestions, all of those things will be compiled and form part of the counter-proposal."

Reporter
"It seems that there is a gap between the merits that you saw in this proposal and what the membership is putting forward. Some people who spoke at the first consultation said we have gotten a nothing proposal."

Luke Palacio, President - BNTU
"That is your view. You are the one who said that apparently we went with something. We are saying to you and we've said it over and over that we took the proposal to our membership, nothing said to them that we have accepted the proposal, nothing said this is what you have gotten - that is a proposal. Based on the proposal and the negotiations we need to go back to a counter-proposal and that is where we are."

Jules Vasquez
"But it is a fact that you all accepted the proposal. There was a press release sent out that said that it had an overwhelming majority."

Luke Palacio, President - BNTU
"It seems to me that you want to be-labor a point. We've said to you that we saw merits in the proposal and that is why we said yes this is acceptable, but the bottom line is our members will give us the direction how we need to go."

Jules Vasquez
"How do you all interpret the poor showing at most of the meetings? I've only heard of 4 of them, but the attendance was poor."

Mervyn Blades, President - PSU
"What we can say about that is that as a joint union we wanted to have all three unions present and it was to accommodate not only PSU but the teachers along at APSSM 5:30 in the evening. We believe one of the reasons was because of the time. If we were to do it again, maybe we would have to get time-off for everybody so that we can redo that. It has nothing to do with either the rejection or a acceptation of the proposal."

George Myvett, Immediate Past President APSSM
"In terms of the consultation process we have also been getting very useful recommendations from our constituents. What we will some away with is really a synthesis of those recommendations. We are hopeful that it would be of such a nature that the negotiations can continue."

Mervyn Blades, President - PSU
"Membership has given us some areas of strengthen this proposal for our counter-proposal now and so that's what we will present to the Prime Minister. As you know with negotiations it's a little back and forth until we could find an area of agreement."

Jules Vasquez
"However as I understand it the government's position is that there is nothing to back and forth on because there is nothing there. I understand the memberships from the meeting I heard of wanted a floor that at least they could have a minimum. However, there is no nothing really there in terms of only if you get a surplus."

George Myvett, Immediate Past President APSSM
"Jules, I don't know where you get your information from that there is no back and forth on the point of the government. From our side what I will say is that it's a negotiation."

Jules Vasquez
"However again as I understand it from what I heard they want a floor, a minimum. Am I right?"

George Myvett, Immediate Past President APSSM
"That has been one of the suggestions that there has to be some sort of guarantee even its based on the performance of the economy. The central part of it and people are saying we have to walk away with something. There is a need to set a "floor" which means that even in a worst case scenario people would be walking away with something from the table."

Jules Vasquez
"However and that is why I said there is no there because you only have anything as I understand if surplus is achieved, am I right?"

Luke Palacio, President - BNTU
"The thing doesn't speak on any surplus. The thing speaks to the out turn of the revenue. In other words the amount of money that the government collects."

Jules Vasquez
"Revenue surplus?"

Luke Palacio, President - BNTU
"No it doesn't say surplus. It says revenue that government gets over its revenue from last year compare to the revenue that they collect this year and then we would get a percentage of that to give us our salary adjustment. Our membership are saying that yes we understand that it is based on our proposal but we also believe that for us to ensure that every year there is something we should not go below a certain minimum which is what we intend to put in the counter-proposal and see how much the government would agree."

Jules Vasquez
"You all are saying you all want a minimum without a surplus. Am I correct?"

Dylan Reneau, President - NTUCB
"That is what the membership put to the union leaders and that is what we will take back to government."

Jules Vasquez
"How can that be achieved if there is nothing there?"

Dylan Reneau, President - NTUCB
"In the past we used to negotiate and we don't know how government afforded the salary adjustment or increase. That is something that would have been negotiated and settled upon with government."

Jules Vasquez
"If the government does agree to place a minimum as they did not in the first case. What then would be the next move of the union?"

Dylan Reneau, President - NTUCB
"I will not speculate. That is a matter for negotiation. I don't know what's the government's position on it but that will be something that the unions will have to go back to the membership and discuss as well."

From what we understood, the Unions were originally supposed to get back to the Prime Minister on February eighth - but now they are saying that they will get back to him in about two weeks.