And while the UDP is trying to rebuild its party, the PUP is working on rebuilding the economy - starting with the pay cuts that teachers, police officers, or nurses weren't able to avoid, despite working on the frontlines during the pandemic.
And among those pubic sector employees taking the hit is the Belize Coast Guard.
But while the unions were protesting in the streets and blocking highways, the BCG upper ranks spent their time dialoguing with their officers and teaching them how to make the most of their reduced salary.
Today, we spoke with the acting commandant, Gregory Soberanis, who explained that despite the concerns of less money in pocket, the officers remained focused on their mandate.
Ag. Comm. Gregory Soberanis, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard
"We had prepared our people prior to the actual implementation of the pay cut. One of the things that we did as an organization, and we'll continue to do it, is classes in financial literacy. So for example we have a team coming in that will go through budget planning with members of the Coast Guard. How do you manage the resources that you have in the light of these budgetary cuts. So as an organization, we have to prudent stewards of the resources that we have, of the budget that has been approved for us, and that is translated to every member of the Coast Guard so what we want to do is provide them with the tools and the skillset for them to sit with their families and go through that budget planning and see how they will make it work for them as individual families so these are some of the initiative that we have taken in order to assist our people."
Courtney Menzies:
"We know for months, the unions were fighting against it, the nurses association, the police association, they all sent out their press release rejecting the 10% cut, is this something that the coast guard had accepted from the onset and started to prepare?"
Ag. Comm. Gregory Soberanis
"Yes, you have to understand we are a military organization and yes, while we do not unionize, our leadership were made aware of the concerns of the men and women of the coast guard, those concerns were factored into their decision making process but at the end of the day as a military organization, we maintained focus on our mission and our mandate. The safety and security, the territorial integrity of the maritime space was what we focused on and we ensured that we maintained our focus on that particular mandate. And as well we engaged our people, we had disposals with members of the coast guard, we ensured that the dialogue was there, that we gave them that conduit for them to express their concerns and we made sure as I mentioned earlier that those concerns were channeled up to our leadership."
