Email

Print

Thirteen days ago the Belize Communication Workers Union sent out an irate press release. They accused the Barrow Administration of quote, "acting from the same script as the Musa Government," and saying that in the BTL settlement – the Barrow administration had done worse than their PUP counterparts by, quote, "saddling all Belizeans…with a whopping $162 million plus of Belizean sweat dollars." They concluded, dismally, quote, "there is no difference between the PUP and the UDP. Both Musa and Barrow have failed us and now we are forced to wonder all over again ‘If we change monkey fu black dog'".

Yes, very strong words, and today the Prime Minister went to a general staff meeting of BTL employees At The Esquivel Telecom Center on St. Thomas Street to explain the settlement which he negotiated. 7News was not allowed into the compound for the meeting – even though we did send a request to the Public Relations Department – it was rejected. But last night at the BTL Annual General Meeting, both the chairman of the board and the chairman of the executive committee discussed the release and the aftermath:…

Anwar Barrow, Chairman - BTL Executive Committee

"That release was unwarranted. We felt that it went outside the scope of matters happening at BTL and spoke to the larger settlement and was unfortunate mix of the two; and we were disappointed in that. As far as day to day relations go with them, we continue to work with them; we continue to communicate with the staff and continue to work through issues as they come up on a day to day basis. What you spoke about tomorrow is that we're having a meeting with the general staff, tomorrow at 5 pm at the compound. We are going to; as per usual discuss general issues as well as the prime minister will be discussing the settlement as a GOB issue."

Nestor Vasquez, Chairman - BTL

"And I can tell you that just yesterday I received a letter saying that they have accepted the invitation to meet with the board, okay. Where they will discuss the matters that were being dealt with but in their view were lingering or too slow, not fast enough for them. But our doors have always been open and they will remain open."