Anxiety about the pending and inevitable privatization of the Belize City Council’s sanitation services is high tonight after yet again City Hall pushed back the date. Effective tomorrow, CITCO was supposed to retire more than 200 of its sanitation workers who were then supposed to be immediately rehired by two private contractors namely Belize Maintenance Services and SEL. That won't happen, at least not yet, and today amidst growing frustration the workers met with their unions. We say unions because while the Christian Workers Union is the legal representative of the workers, an outgrowth is the smaller National Worker's Union which claims to represent a sizeable amount of workers and is also now clamoring for a voice. NWU President Bernard Briceno told us the workers just want what they are due.
Bernard Briceno, President National Workers Union
“They are claiming that their pay is not right and that is why they found us and we are trying to fight for their rights. They were going to privatize on Monday but according to what they are saying it has been changed to September and that is why we are using this opportunity to fight for them.”
“The agreement we are trying to get is that the people who work from 3 to 5 years should get 1 week per year; and from 5 to 7 years they should get two weeks per year; and for those with 7 to 10 years they should get three weeks per year. That is what we are trying to fight to get for them.”
KS: And they are not being given that?
Bernard Briceno,
“Up to right now we haven’t signed an agreement with the Belize City Council as yet.”
While Briceno intends to bargain with City Hall, he is currently not legally able to do so. That NWU meeting was held at the Constitution Park while the CWU met with its membership at the Saint John's Credit Union conference room. The CWU meeting was held to brief their members on the date change.