Will the Communication Workers accept the government/Ashcroft proposal to own 20% of BTL? Well that question remains unanswered tonight. Today Union President Paul Perriot told us that government has not tried to reach out to the unions to explain the proposed deal. Perriot says that he expected that government's union negotiators, Ministers Godfrey Smith or Jose Coye would have reached out to them by now but they haven't. Perriot explained that there are many blank spots left in the proposal unveiled by the Prime Minister at Friday's House sitting, and the union needs answers to these questions.
As it stands now, the unions only know what the Prime Minister said on Friday: that 20% of the company's holdings will be transferred to an Ashcroft company that will hold the shares for the BTL workers. It's notable that in a now typical Ashcroft-ian twist the company which holds the shares is called "sunshine", a mild cruel play on the now failed management ownership scheme called_ "Sunrise."
If the BTL workers decide that they will accept the deal to buy the 20% shareholding from Ashcroft's "Sunshine", it will be transferred into the name of a trust, which will hold the shares on their behalf. The workers would have to access this 20%, through a loan provided by Ashcroft's Belize Bank. What the government has not told the nation or the union is what's the price per share, what are the terms of the Belize Bank financing arrangement, and how long it will be held in reserve.
With all these questions unanswered, Union President Paul Perriot today told us that the union does not have enough information to make a decision on whether it will accept the offer. On Friday evening Perriot indicated to Keith Swift that he is disinclined to accept the offer because it does not give them control of the company.
Paul Perriot, BCWU President
[June 17th, 2005] "How do you pay back for the shares if you don't have control of the company? What we were going for initially is that we were trying to get control of the Board so we don't have that management fee slipping out in all directions and all the abuses of BTL's funds. If we don't have the control that we wanted, even if we're sitting on the Board, its like we're sitting there just to hear what the Board is deciding and we will have to accept everything, or even if we don't accept it we'll have to go with it. Again how will we pay back for the shares at the end of the year if Michael Ashcroft, who will be in control of the Board, decides that he won't pay any dividends this year. So what will happen to our loan? Those are the things which we went through when the proposal was put on the table and so all of those things we still have to continue taking into consideration and its not something we can accept just like that because they handed me 20% in my hand. Its not that you outwardly say you won't accept it, it's just that you have to wonder who you're working with. And if you take this 20% and you can't pay for it at the end of the day, you will end up without the shares. So what's the use in even accepting it now?"
