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BNTU President Says Teacher’s One-Day Strike Could Turn Into a Longer Shutdown
posted (September 27, 2016)
In last night's news, we spoke to the president of the Teachers Union who said that teachers countrywide will strike next week. We also framed the war of words between the BNTU President and the Prime Minister, who made a plea to the teachers not to listen to the call of their union, because it will force a shutdown of classes.

Well, preliminary indications are that next week's strike could go for more than one day. That's what President Luke Palacio told the media in San Ignacio this afternoon after he had met with the Union branch from that town. Palacio said that the teachers from San Ignacio are suggesting that it be extended, and that recommendation will be taken onboard with the Council of Management:

Luke Palacio - National President, BNTU
"Our members here in San Ignacio, today they were very vocal about their position and they are saying that they don't believe that they want the strike action to be only for one day. We are going to take back all of these recommendations to our council, because we intend to have a council meeting before the week is out and those matters will be discussed. But we need to also point out very importantly that we cannot go out there today and say that we are going to be on strike for any period of time, simply because we don't want for those that would try and say well okay, we will see how long they can hold out, or they have given us an indication and therefore we don't need to worry. This is what we are saying to our members. Every day we will update them as to what the situation is like and how we proceed."

He also told the media about his meeting with the other social partners. As you heard last night, he accused the Prime Minister of shuttling between the unions so that he could appease them one by one, a tactic Palacio calls divide and conquer. Well, last night, Palacio and his crew met with representatives of those social partners, and he gave his account of those meetings:

Luke Palacio - National President, BNTU
"The objective of the meeting was for us to provide to those bodies our side of the story if you will, as it relates to a rebuttal on what the Prime Minister had said in his video. So the letter that we had sent to the Prime Minister with the response was presented, copies were issued and we were able to explained point for point why the response we gave or the reason for the different responses we gave. And we made it absolutely clear to those present that we did not expect them last night to say how much support they are going to give, what the type of support is, because in some instances we know they have to go back to the organizations to determine what form of support they will give, but generally speaking, there was support from those present in terms of yes. These are national issues. They are important issues and we should be able to weigh in."

And as we've told you, the Barrow Government is also on its own public campaign to shut this strike down before it takes root. Well, today, Palacio had a putdown for the Government for all the money it is spending on advertisement in what he calls misinformation:

Luke Palacio - National President, BNTU
"This is not the time to back down. Don't get intimidated. We know that the threats will come. They are coming fast and hard, but our bottom line remains that we are standing up for the good of this country. We see every minute the propaganda being aired and nobody has really stood up and say to the Prime Minister or to the government or to those who are supporting those actions, how much of tax payers dollars is being spent on those ads that are being played on the air. We know that I minute of air time is not cheap and the Prime Minister's address is over 9 minutes and in one day we are hearing probably for 10 times. And then you are going to look at us and say we don't care about this country, we don't care about our children, but you can be squandering the people's money trying to dissuade people trying to be divisive at that, using terms that we are on a destructive crusade. We have said that this is a peaceful process. We are not going to ask and encourage anybody to try and do anything that would destroy this country simply because they are probably fed up with what is going on and would try to seize on this opportunity. We are not about that."

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