There was no teachers' strike today but all indications are that there will be one tomorrow and possibly more than that. Presently the teachers and the NTUCB are meeting at the BNTU office in Belize City and the word coming out from there is that all teachers are to meet in the Battlefield Park at 8:00 tomorrow, and that the other unions will be pitching into the effort. That means that we face the prospect, as yet unconfirmed, of a national shutdown tomorrow extending to schools, the Public Service, and utility services. In fact just before news time the Public Service Union sent a release which says that it will commence a national shutdown at midnight tonight to continue for an indefinite period. Just a few minutes ago Alfonso Noble spoke with the General Secretary of the National Trade Union Congress George Frazer.
George Frazer, NTUCB General Secretary
"It has been made officially now that the BNTU is taking strike action. In my hand I have a copy of the formal notice to the relevant authorities including to the Commissioner of Labor, the Minister of Education, and others and the reasons. There are three main reasons. Some are saying it's not legal. It is legal. We have the matter of the non-compliance with different sections of the agreement made with government and the NTUCB on the 11th of February, notably sections 3,5,6,8, and 9. There have been dragging of feet, many of the deadlines and agreements are not being met and there is a lot of games being played. The second thing is we wrote the Prime Minister asking him for B and C shares certificate, 480,000 B shares from BTL, and the certificate for the 87,666 C shares. For well over a month we have heard nothing. And the third thing again is in support of the call by the NTUCB in its letter to the Prime Minister stating our lack of confidence in government and what has been going on and we are calling for his resignation."
Alfonso Noble,
That is the official position of BNTU. What about the NTUCB?
George Frazer,
"Well the various unions, they will indicate their positions so we agreed we will work together and so we expect that. I will not pre-empt for them. I am talking officially for BNTU so we are asking our teachers not to report to work tomorrow. We have a legitimate gripe. We understand a few general managers met with some principals today to cloud the issue. If they themselves either don't understand the issues or are playing games, how can they advise people but we know and have the confidence that our people understand the issues. We will be making statements on the radio and again on TV to let people understand. So our call is to the teachers. This is not against the children and whether it is one day or two days or three days, it depends on government's response. But certainly we are not there to hurt any children or any teacher and so that is the call."
Alfonso Noble,
What is the response you want for government?
George Frazer,
"We made the call for government to listen to the call of the voice of the people. You say you have the support, maybe you had it couple years ago, and when elections were held many of the secret deals and thing came out after and were not known, and you are confident you have the support of the people well call for new elections and let us go to the people. If the people say we are satisfied what can we do? We have done our part."
So the teachers will strike and we are advised they will be joined by other unions in a national shutdown for the purpose of forcing the Prime Minister to resign. Again this national shutdown is not officially confirmed, but it is the very clear indication coming to us from the trade union movement.
