They didn't chase Dean Boyce out of the compound, and they didn't shut down the national phone network, but BTL employees did walk off the job today. Well, maybe not exactly a walk off, but something like it. At about 8:30 the company got a bomb threat and the building had to be cleared, and then just as they were about to walk back in, the fire alarm went off. Of course, it was a bomb threat that somehow bore the imprint of industrial resistance but a bomb threat nonetheless. That beckoned no less than the Commissioner of Police Gerald Westby and the Officer Commanding Eastern Division Crispin Jeffries to the scene. Last we checked, they aren't bomb experts but the two men did go inside and speak to management and union leaders about the situation. In the intervening 2 hours, about 150 employees stood idly outside in the sun hot waiting for the all clear to go back inside.
And while BTL employees were out of work for much of the morning, government's bill at the Miami Federal Court just continued to add up. As of 5:00 pm eastern time today, you can count another US$50,000 in contempt charges against the Government of Belize bringing the grand total thus far to US$800,000. 7NEWS has received a copy of the application made to the court by Government's Miami Attorney, the firm of Hunton and Williams. In it, lead litigator Barry Davidson asks judge Ursula Ungaro Benages to "reconsider and vacate her contempt finding." By all appearances, Davidson is employing the strategy of accounting for all recent contemptuous actions, namely blocking a meeting of the board of directors on the actions of other third parties, namely Michael Ashcroft's E-com which has informally partnered with government to block Jeffrey Prosser's re-entry into the company.
