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They met amongst themselves today, and afterwards, they held a press briefing to say that they are sticking to that position:

Luke Palacio, National President – BNTU
"We have agreed that we are prepared to meet with Minister Faber. In fact we sent him an email earlier today indicating to him our position that it remains that he to meet with our 25 member council of management. He had responded indicating that he still have his position that he wants to meet with only 5 members of the BNTU council of management and our council remains with the position that it has to be with our 25 member council of management and we cited to him that we've met with him on a number of occasions with all 25 members. In fact in the media yesterday I cited that, that when he wanted us to support the issue of the special permit, he invited all 25 of us to that meeting and a number of our teachers whose license would have expired are expired at that time. Some were denied special permits. Others have been granted. When he wanted us to discuss amendments to the education rules, he invited all 25. So again our position is you want to discuss the matter of docking the salaries of our teachers who stood up for Belize, who continue to give service to this country, then it is only right that you meet with all 25 of us."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"What is there are those in the public who believe that the union keeping this hard line stance is getting it in its own way for fight sake?"

Luke Palacio, National President – BNTU
"Well everybody is subject to their own opinion and their interpretation. We are adhering to what our constitution provides and again when you look at the content of the letter his position has not changed neither. He is insisting that he wants to meet with 5 people and that it has to do with using the strike fund for us to pay for those teachers who were on strike and we are saying if that is your hard line then we have to maintain a hard line as well. So it's not that we are trying to be intransigent. He has a hard line. He wants to prove something."

Today, the Union also changed tactic on the Minister's proposal to use their strike fund to pay those teachers. Instead of explaining why they aren't prepared to do so, they read from their Union's constitution so that you could understand why they say that the proposal is not a plausible resolution:

Endeavora Jorgensen, Member - BNTU Committee of Management
"All members shall pay into a strike fund of such monthly amount as may be determine by the convention and convention is the highest authority. This fund shall be use for the need and concerns of members and the union during strike action authorized by the union. It shall be used only for the expenses incurred from because of or during such strike and authorized by the council. In the event of any dispute arising, the branch concern shall make the same known to the secretary general office through the national president or his/her absence through the executive secretary. But in no case shall a strike go slow or other form of industrial action be ordered or take place without the sanction of the council."

Nadia Caliz, BNTU Stann Creek Branch
"The way we view this argument over what the strike fund should be spend on and not spend on, we see it clearly as another form of trying to hold a rope around our membership's neck, making it look as if though we are not concern about them. That is one. Making it look like 'oh, I have the money, I control. If you ever think about going on a strike again, this is what I will show you what is happening that I will do to you all that I will not pay you all.' That's what we see and we want our membership to understand clearly, that is not the way for anybody to treat you. We are not supposed to be begging for money. What happen when we are out late at night trying to solicit funds for our school for events? Because we sponsor a lot of those things at those schools. What happened to that? Nobody pays us for that. Some of us were on strike, we were not in the classrooms, but we were working with students outside of those walls. We were still working with our students. But they don't want to hear about that. the point is we took a stand for Belize and we thought our students a lesson. So why are we here fighting and fussing over who should be paid and who shouldn't be paid? What the discussing should be about right now is not about the strike fund, how are we going to make up the time; how are we going to make certain, especially the students who are getting ready for external exams. How are we going to make certain that the content is covered? That's what we want to talk about. Money, no money, who controls the fund and who don't controls the fund - that is just another game of playing with membership mind and BNTU is not going to stand for that, not."

So, back to that meeting, the teachers have written back to Faber saying that either he meets with all 25 members, or there will be no meeting. He has also responded urging them to reconsider, and he has left the date open for such a dialog all the way into November. The deadline will of course be when the Ministry has to take the steps to withhold the payment at the end of next month. So, one side will have to give some ground for this discussion to happen, and as of right now, neither is prepared to do so.