Industrial action to protest government's new budget continued today. For the sixth consecutive day, primary and secondary level public schools countrywide were closed as teachers continue with a record strike. In utilities, there have been water and power outages reported. In the city, the water supply was cut at 9:00 this morning and the outage continued through to the evening; at newstime water service had still not been restored. Last night, blackouts were reported in San Ignacio, Placencia and Punta Gorda, though the Canadian owned electricity company would not comment on these.
And while things continue to develop on the utility front, today, direct industrial action came from the Public Service Union. The Public Service Union members voted to strike in protest of new taxes, demand their wage increase, and rally for reform. The effect of the strike could be far-reaching and it is expected to cripple government with workers from the Post Office, Customs, Immigration, Hospital, Housing, Education, and put virtually all departments on strike. 7NEWS has been on the story all morning and was there when the strike was called.
Keith SwiftReporting,
Government workers went on strike at mid-day and just one station, 7NEWS, was at the Post Office as your mailmen and postal employees quite dramatically 'walked out' of their offices and across the Swing Bridge into the middle of traffic.
Jason Neal, Postal Employee
"What we agreed to do was what we should have done a long time ago. We should have walked out when the teachers did, we chose not to. We waited on the union to make the decision and once that was made we in essence supported our union."
The postal employees headed to the PSU Office on Kut Avenue where they joined about 100 other government workers. The lunch meeting was headed by an at all times non-committal Belize District Branch President Jackie Willoughby.
Keith Swift,
Are these workers going back to work?
Jackie Willoughby, PSU Belize District Branch President
"Keith you will have to go in and see if their going to back to work."
Keith Swift,
Did the workers make a decision to strike then?
Jackie Willoughby,
"There are a lot of workers here, why don't you ask them."
By 1 pm the crowd had swollen to over 200 and the meeting spilled into the yard with worker representation from across the public service. You name a department, and they had a representative there. By the time PSU President Dylan Reneau arrived he says the members had decided to strike.
Dylan Reneau, PSU President
"It was a part of the plan all along. Not because there are certain things going on right now means we have to back off of the plan. We are still going to go out because people do believe that we may not have done our part. We were doing our part, we started the solidarity campaign and we were on go-slow. But we had this in our plans to come out with the strike and we are still carrying it through because right now there is still no concrete resolution to any of the issues we have put out there. We are showing the government that we are still unified and we are still going to address these things to the bitter end."
And if the PSU gets its way, with revenue sources like the customs and Post Office closed or at best crippled - this strike will hit government where it hurts.
Dylan Reneau,
"The government knows exactly what type of effect it will have on them. I will not throw out any figures or numbers or speculate but we are certain that an action like this will have adverse effect on the government and certainly will give them a jolt."
That is the financial but what about air traffic controllers?
Keith Swift,
What's going to happen at the airport with air traffic controllers?
Dylan Reneau,
"No comment on that."
Keith Swift,
Are your workers there going to strike?
Dylan Reneau,
"No comment on that."
Keith Swift,
What about at the border?
Dylan Reneau,
"At the borders yes we have a countrywide strike going on."
But while the strike may be effective it may not be legal. You can start with the Post Office which falls under the Essential Service Act meaning the symbolic walkout at noon could be illegal. Postal workers we spoke to though acknowledge the risk and this afternoon openly defied it.
Jason Neal, Postal Worker
"Illegal to what extent? Is it to the extent that we can be taken to court and we could be charged or fined? Is it to the extent that they'll away our pay, our salary, for whatever amount of days we decide to stay off work? Come on, ask yourself."
Keith Swift,
But are you aware that if you indeed walked off the job and if you don't return, that it is illegal?
Jason Neal,
"There are a lot of illegal things happening my friend. I am not saying that because other illegal things are happening we should do something illegal. I am saying that Belizeans as a whole, as a people, have to stand up for what they believe in and that's what we did."
James Gabourel, PSU Liaison at Post Office
"This is an essential call. We have made a collective bargaining agreement with the government of Belize for us to get salary increases and we are due that potion of salary increases for this year. The government has faltered on that legal agreement so what basis does the government have to say legally we are an essential service. If they cannot comply then we have all right not to comply either; they are our leaders. This is a national effort and we need to stand up and take a stand."
Keith Swift,
How long do you expect you and the workers to stay off the job considering how important the Post Office is?
James Gabourel,
"I go under the guidance of the council of management of the PSU and as long as they see it fit for us to continue, we will go. As the BNTU President says, we will go the whole 9 yards."
Keith Swift,
For the benefit of our viewers at home, can people expect their mail to be delivered?
James Gabourel,
"Once the Post Office goes on a shutdown, we go on a strike and services will be discontinued."
Keith Swift,
So you won't get your mail, you won't be able to post mail, and access any postal services?
James Gabourel,
"You won't be able to do anything, we will go on a total shutdown."
And this afternoon though still open, when 7NEWS visited the Post Office on North Front Street it was operating on a skeleton staff, we counted 3 employees. The PSU President commented on the legality of the strike.
Dylan Reneau,
"The membership is of the opinion that we have to make a firm stand. The law does speak to essential service but there are certain recourses which the union has looked over and certainly will not necessarily net the benefits because it puts everything in government's hand with the arbitration tribunal and the 21 day notice. So we realized that would not be one of the most beneficial avenues so we have not taken that avenue. We are doing a protest action to ensure that we have dialogue and we work this thing out through discussion and not being forced into a decision that will be legally binding on both parties."
Also during today's meeting the PSU members refused to concede their 8% and 5% salary increase. President Reneau later went to pains to say that is only part of their demands.
Dylan Reneau,
"Our members are saying that they want their 8% and 5% upfront. Even today in addressing them I brought up the correlation with Mr. Prosser who has a contract, or some sort of agreement, with this government, has not paid a cent for some shares he has, but yet he is basically in charge of a company. Why is the government unable to break a contract of that magnitude and is willing to try and break our collective agreement, our contract."
"It is not only a salary increase issue, especially for the PSU because in 1994 when we had the austerity measures, in fact the public service has still not recovered from those austerity measures. We are cognizant of how destructive these things can be to an economy, a country, a people, and we are here to ensure that it is corrected through the reforms. We have to start being more specific about the reforms. We are talking about the Finance and Audit Bill, the Contractor General, reforms about the Ombudsman, and the Auditor General. So these are reforms that we need to put in place to ensure that these sort of things don't happen again. It is also an issue of taxes: they told us we won't get our salary increase but yet they are levying so many taxes on us when we have people in this Belizean society who are making money and should be paying taxes. We believe they should pay their fair share."
And today Reneau and the Public Service Union resoundingly resolved to send that message to Belmopan by shutting down the Public Service once and for all. Can Belmopan hear them now?
PSU president Dylan Reneau also told us that they didn't serve a 21-day notice of intended strike action but the union informed the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Public Service. A government release this evening advised that all post offices countrywide remain open and are providing usual services to customers. The union's liaison at the post office told us that 70% of the employees are union members and are on strike. As for the Customs Department when we tried to call their offices this afternoon, the phone just rang off the hook and presently the main office in Belize City is manned by about 20% of the work force comprising senior officers. We understand immigration officers at the administration building in Belize City also walked off the job. The strike goes nationwide tomorrow morning and continues indefinitely. Instead of work tomorrow, public servants are asked to report to the Memorial Park at 8:30 for a demonstration.
For some historical perspective, the last time public servants went on strike was in 1995. The beef with the Esquivel administration back then was because of retrenchment and a wage freeze. One union official noted to us that the 1995 strike wasn't as far-reaching since at that time essential services workers didn't join in on the strike action.
