So, while the strike by the teachers continued today and will extent to at least Thursday, today the Government publicly asked them to return to the negotiating table to talk about the 3% salary adjustment. As we told you yesterday, it is given as the cause for industrial action in the notice sent to the Ministry of Education.
The Government released a statement today which says, quote, "The Cabinet... is disappointed that the... (BNTU) blatantly moved the goalposts in deciding to strike, close our nation's schools, and affecting children and their parents." End quote.
Calling them out on the late addition of the 3% as a reason for the strike, the Cabinet says, " The initial BNTU campaign was first declared to be centered on a good governance agenda as set out in the eight demands contained in their letter to the Prime Minister. However, the formal strike notice sent to the Chief Education Officer...did a switch and listed the 3% salary adjustment and the so-called Proposal 22 as the main reasons for the strike. Yet, the BNTU had already acknowledged that the Prime Minister has proposed a compromise on the 3%, to which the BNTU has not yet responded…" End quote.
The Cabinet release goes on to explain that the proposal 22 was part of the last Collective Bargaining Agreement process between the Government and the 3 unions. That process was recently brought to a close, and everyone agreed that proposal 22 should have been placed on the agenda for the next round of negotiations.
The Cabinet statement says, quote, "...In all the circumstances Cabinet repeats that the BNTU action is extremely harmful and out of all proportion. Cabinet therefore restates its call to the BNTU: In the interests of the children, the parents and the country, suspend the strike; return to the negotiating table." End quote.
It notes that the BNTU has now pushed 8 good governance demands as a secondary reason for striking, but the Government says it is still willing to discuss them with the other social partners, the Belize Council of Churches, the National Trade Unions Congress of Belize, and the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
So, what's the BNTU's response to the Cabinet. We asked the President, and here's what he said:
Luke Palacio, National President - BNTU
"Obviously there is no flip-flopping. Remember the government has to give it its own twist. The bottom-line remains that we never said that the 3% salary adjustment was off the table. The Prime Minister has made a request for a deferral, the BNTU is adamant in refusing to accept the request for deferral without getting any guarantee that there is something that we will get for our money. Because we've said it over and over, that money was already there. The government has already raised that revenue in the last financial year. In terms of them saying that we are flip-flopping on proposal 22, they are the ones who are flip-flopping. Because we have met, there has been discussions and we have been consistent that we are not prepare to accept this injustice, this malpractice, this denial that they have of social justice for our teachers and support staff at the grant aided secondary schools. It was the minister of education who came there and said these negotiations have been going on for too long. We close negotiations. We were adamant. Mr. Frazer in particular was adamant that negotiations were not closed."
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Have you responded as a national president for BNTU on the meeting request that the Prime Minister made to all 3 unions, you included?"
Luke Palacio, National President - BNTU
"Letter was written to the 3 presidents of the joint unions negotiating team, one of the presidents of those unions, I am told would arrive in the country today. I have been busy all day in meetings. I don't know if the president has arrived and I'll try to make contact with her this evening and then we will have to agree. The 3 presidents will have to sit down and agree on what day will be suitable for them to be present at the meeting. If we have sent a letter saying only one of the presidents' side or the BNTU sent the letter, then you will hear this is not a joint union response. So we are waiting for that and as soon as that is done we say we are open to go to the meeting, but we will go to the meeting with the condition that BNTU is not prepared to defer its salary adjustment and get nothing for it."
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