Almost exactly two years ago - the Belize Energy Workers Union at BEL stirred. They were angry because the power company was making layoffs: of linesmen and power plant operators. Things cooled off though when the Labour Commissioner got involved as a mediator - meaning that all plans to proceed with layoffs were frozen. The status quo remained until today when Union leaders came to our office saying that BEL wants to terminate four power plant operators as soon as May 17th. Now, a union exists primarily to make sure its members keep their jobs, so this deadline spurred the energy workers into action. They say they are appealing directly to the board of directors since management is not listening to them:...
Marvin Mora, Vice President - BEWU
"This time they have given us a date and they have proposed the 17th May to make these guys positions redundant and terminate the guys. Because of the arrangements that we have on our partnership collective agreement the company should have made provisions for those workers to be re-trained and placed somewhere else in the company. They issue has been long in the back burner for over 3 years and still the company has not been able to re-trained not even one employee and relocate an employee elsewhere so that he can keep his longevity service at BEL. The point is that we are past management and now are trying to address this issue with the board of directors to look at what the union side of the issue is and explore all the points that we are bringing to the table before they make a final decision that will ultimately impact all consumers in this country. You see, it is critical to note that the gas turbine is a key element is restoring back power to the country."
Henry Balan, President - BEWU
"We keep reiterating to them that if you remove the guys from up there, who will be there for us? Everybody; the consumers, we as employees - it's just not going to function properly."
Dorla Staine, Trustee - BEWU
"BEL and this country does not need any extra generating capacity - those guys are vital to that company."
Marvin Mora, Vice President - BEWU
"We want the board of directors to put a halt to that on that redundancy in the 17th until we have discuss with them. We are talking about employees who have been serving the company for over 20 years and it is impossible to have a company the size of BEL telling this union here and its employees that after 20 years of service we cannot find one single position where we can transfer you to. To us that's ridiculous."
They say the Board has promised them a meeting for May 27th. 10 days after the layoffs go into effect.
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