A sea of green and yellow washed over the National Assembly steps today in Belmopan as the House of Representatives met to debate the national budget.

And while the parliamentarians inside were giving their speeches, outside you could hear the chants of the union members demanding good governance and an end to corruption.

The numbers, though, were not impressive, but, still, their solidarity was strong, and their signs held high.

Courtney Menzies was on the ground this morning and spoke to a few of the union leaders. She has this story.

"Solidarity! Forever! Solidarity! Forever! Corruption! Stop now! Corruption! Stop now!"

Those were the chants of the PSU and the BNTU as they stood a wall of green and yellow on the National Assembly stairs. Just inside, the House of Representatives met for the Budget Debate.

The Unionists chose this day to come out so that the government could hear their message loud and clear: corruption within the government needs to end.

And president of the BNTU, Elena Smith, said that good governance was always their goal.

"From the beginning we made it very clear that we were not letting go of these good governance issues because we felt that these issues are really and truly what have us where we are today. So our teachers were out there to send that message that we are saying to those in authority, our leaders, that you must deal with those good governance issues so that things could be better for all of us, not just us teachers, but for all of us as a country, as a people."

And according to the Belmopan Branch President, that's exactly why they decided to support their brothers and sisters in yellow.

"Today we just came out here to support the PSU, they're our sister union so we came out to support them. This morning earlier we had our activity where we were on the highway picketing and going against corruption. And so that was what we were doing this morning and after we finished then we came out here to support PSU and also for our voices to be heard also. As usual when we are around each other, we are all hype and excited and it doesn't make sense if you're all hype and excited and the government is not listening so we came out here to make sure they could hear our voices so they can hear what we want, what we are talking about, it's not just about teachers it's also about country and that is what as teachers we are standing up for."

And on the topic of ongoing corruption, the first vice president of the PSU also had some words of advice for the parliamentarians meeting right inside.

"I am calling on the government to stop the lies and stop attacking the union as if I were the opposition. I also want to call on the opposition as you are the majesty's paid opposition, do not be another lame duck opposition that will paid to be the watchdog against the government and simply wait until it's your turn to come and fleece. Well, I can say to the now opposition, that ain't gonna happen, because if and when you guys come back to office, we will have good governance, we will have stronger institutions and we will have laws to hold you accountable. This has to stop, this is not about me, this is about Belize."

And though their numbers were low, PSU President, Gerald Henry, said that they held back their forces for the safety of their members.

"We could have brought out more persons but we understood the COVID 19 regulations and restrictions so we decided not to bring out everyone and to limit the amount of persons who would be coming from the districts. In addition to that we decided to only bring certain branches out, it wasn't all the branches from across the country, so today we have with us Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize City, and Cayo and tomorrow we will be having the southern districts coming in which would be Toledo, Stann Creek, Belmopan would also come here, and I think Cayo will come again. This thing is a repeat of administration and we are the ones who always get impacted each time the government finds itself or puts itself into financial difficulty, it runs to us, so I think public officers are very aware of that and it's time to say enough is enough."

But the unions were not alone, since the Nurses Association also joined the fight. According to the President, Darrell Spencer, they are tired of the red and blue bukut.

"All of us are out here because Belizeans are the people, we the people, need to demand a change in our government, not to change the government, we tired of change government, you change monkey you get black dog, we want the government to change, we don't want to change the government. Bukut here represent what Belizeans taking for the last forty years, two decades nearly of UDP, two decades nearly of PUP and all we get is bukut, we need to stop taking bukut. Sign the laws, get the laws in place, get the whistle-blower act in place, no amount of salary cut will help this country with a wasteful government."

And they the have the support of the NTUCB, as president Luke Martinez said that the unions are simply defending what's theirs.

"We are not here to destroy anything, we are nationals, we are humanitarians, and this is a nationalistic movement and so, nation building, this is what nation building is about, we must fight corruption. We are here to defend our property, we are defending our territory, that's the 10%, we are defending our wages and we will defend it to the end."

The unions will be back, they say in full force tomorrow as the budget debate continues.

Police officers were on the ground ensuring the order was maintained. Smith told us that during tomorrow's protest, she does not expect things to escalate violently at least, not on the BNTU's side.