And in observance of the upcoming Labor Day, the Ministry of Labor held a round table talk with representatives from BCCI and NTUCB today. The discussion lasted about an hour and spoke about the significance of the holiday - especially in he current climate. Former NTUCB president, Marvin Mora, explained that Belize as a nationalist construct was built on trade unions and they form an integral part of our past and present and will continue to impact our future.
Marvin Mora, Representative, NTUCB
"The very foundation of the nation that we now call Belize was done on the backs of the trade union movement and its leadership at that time. There is so many people that were involved way before George Price era: Lee Richardson all the way to the great Antonio Soberanis. So there is so much history that is directly and in a parallel tied to trade unionism that Belize's independence really can be traced back all the way to Antonio Soberanis and the general workers movement. What I will tell you that over the years apart from having a nation, the contributions of the trade union movement have been vast in the area of legislation as you are aware, we're still involved in that through the tripartite movement at the Labor advisory board. But also because of this legislation that have been enacted over the years, all the bits and pieces, we have seen the standard of living of our people change, working environments change, we have seen the advent of new technologies but at the same time the capacity building of our people to begin to meet the demands of our people. In the area of health and safety, we have now poised ourselves in a position where we are aiming to change that culture so that we can be a more productive society without having those negative impacts of the daily routines of our - by way of injuries or by way of job related sickness or anything as such."
