The Public Service Union today ordered 6,000 public officers, including essential services, to go on strike to protest tax increases and the deferral of a salary increase. How many did actually strike? Well numbers have been virtually impossible to get but most ministries we called did not have full attendance, and most hovered between one half and two thirds, while a few government offices, like the Immigration Department in Belmopan was just shut down. The final figures on how many struck are expected to be compiled over the weekend and we can report them with more certainty on Monday. But whatever the exact number, it is sizeable and the message to Belmopan seems clear. But by all outward indications, government has not pushed the panic buttons. And even as protests were staged in Dangriga, Belmopan, San Ignacio, Orange Walk, Corozal, and Belize City, government has not moved from its position that new taxes will go into effect on Tuesday, February first.
Still, urgent talks on reform will continue this weekend between the Chamber of Commerce executive and Ministers Godfrey Smith and Jose Coye. As we understand it, government's legal draftsman has already come up with legislation which promises to dramatically enhance the powers of the Senate and broaden the Public Finance Committee's powers of oversight. After the reform talks, then they move on to discussions about the new tax measures.
And while those talks continue in a progressive atmosphere, today there was no room for such courtesy on the city streets where the NTUCB staged a peaceful protest. 7NEWS was there and Alfonso Noble found out that the anti-Belmopan rhetoric is going from restrained to downright rough.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
For the third time in the past 8 days demonstrators took to the streets of Belize City and the call continues to be the same. But while the call of the demonstrators has not changed, there is definitely a new dynamic and character to it: today rather then speak in generalities, these folks were naming names and casting blame:
Protestor: What Mr. Musa dog di eat out yah?
Crowd: Steak.
Protestor: What the poor man di eat out yah?
Crowd: Bread and Butter. No More Taxes.
Crowd: Boycott Brodies! Musa own? Brodies!
Crowd: Boycott Mirab!
Protestor #1,
"We have to understand at the end of the day when we have reform, when we amend our constitution, it is those same people right now who have we in this chaos who will control this same reform; the amending of the constitution. What we are saying is that we need these people move out of the way. We need to get these people completely out of the way because at the end of the day these people are conniving, they are devious, and they don't have poor people at heart. And at the end of the day they will come back and inflict the same kind of wounds we are feeling and we will end up in this same scenario again."
With that call the protesters numbering somewhere between 400 and 500 took to the streets of Belize City vocalizing their displeasure with new taxes, the need for reform and overall solidarity with the teachers and the undelivered promise of salary increases for teachers and public servants.
Protestor #2,
"I've said it already and I'll say it again: we will not tolerate these taxes. We as Belizeans are taking a licking and its high time we get up and stand up for our rights."
Protestor #3,
"We believe the country has been led down a path of destruction by the current administration and we need to also recover back some of this money."
Dylan Reneau, PSU President
"Reform, no new taxes, and our 5 and 8% salary increase; the message has been clear from day one. The government has questioned the resolve of these unions and we have to make a stand. The corruption and mismanagement of this country has brought us to this point and we don't believe that we have to pay. Yes its having an adverse effect on our economy but we have to make a stand as a people, we have to make a stand or it will not change."
Protestor #4,
"This man is looking to raise taxes on us again and we are already paying a lot of taxes so we can't afford it."
Protestor #5,
"We don't need any more taxes. More taxes mean more hard times for the poor people, less thing you can afford, and it will just be really rough."
The demonstrators say they simply cannot afford for that to happen and will continue this type of public protest for as long as it takes.
Protestor #3,
"The union is here from BTL and they are also voicing their support and their discontent with the government. So as long as it takes, we are prepared to be out here doing this."
Protestor #2,
"As long as it takes to send the message to the bunch of thieves in Belmopan that we as Belizeans will not take it no more; we have had enough. We are feeling the consequences."
Protestor #4,
"As long as our union leaders say we should come out here we will come out and support the union."
Protestor #1,
"As long as it takes, as long as it takes for them to make a change."
In the meantime however it means that people are simply not at work and the question is who'll pay. Many on the streets today say they have no qualms about taking a cut if it means standing up for their rights.
Protestor #3,
"If I have to take a pay cut, I shall."
Protestor #2,
"If it means me losing a day's pay I will sacrifice it but I'm standing up with my union and my fellow Belizeans. We need to make a change. Enough is enough, the taxes are ridiculous and we cannot take it anymore."
Protestor #4,
"If they don't want to pay us, what can we do. We know we are fighting for our country."
Protestor #1,
"We just have to stay without pay for now but we don't mind because we are standing up for our rights."
Mark Butler, BEWU President
"I don't work for no government entity and we don't worry if we are not being paid at this moment because we have to stand firm in this rally together that's we are out here. Everybody is in solidarity and we have this solidarity thing going right across the country at this moment. We don't even worry if we are getting cut at the moment because we have to look at it on the longer run. So we are fighting and we are together in it. We are not only talking about teacher's salary but we are talking about salaries, tax reforms, and everything."
Paul Perriot, BCWU President
"My workers have collectively decided, or my other members, that if BTL decides to not pay us, we will take the pay cut also along with the teachers."
Protestor #6,
"I have my own business and I have my workers. I closed down from last week Thursday. To me its not the money, it's the principle and that's what I go by."
Alfonso Noble,
But principle can't feed you.
Protestor #6,
"But this is only for a time you see. We must condition ourselves, this is just for a season."
For now it is open season for demonstrations and the principle of this is that the country remains on a continued go-slow if not an altogether shutdown. But with all this hard talk the talking and walking the walk, the Musa administration seems unbowed, prepared to negotiate, but not to submit to hard-line demands like the ones made today.
And while the rhetoric in the streets is becoming more militant, there's not much encouraging to report from the negotiating table between the government and the NTUCB. Earlier we told you that Chamber and government are getting along swimmingly, but not so for the NTUCB. Last night, NTUCB Administrative Secretary George Frazer never showed for a meeting which was supposed to have been held with the Minister of Education, the school managers, and the union umbrella group. Minister Fonseca, along with Minister Godfrey Smith and Jose Coye were kept waiting for hours hoping to present Frazer with an official position paper from the Prime Minister promising, among other things, the wage increase in two not three years, and effective April 2005, not December, 2005. But Frazer never showed up and today we couldn't find him either. What's the holdup? Well we're not sure, but today a number of union leader told us that government may be trying to use an old divide and conquer tactic. The thing is that the collective bargaining agreement in which the increments were promised was signed by the Teachers Union, the Public Service Union, and the Association of Senior Public Service Managers and all of them have to agree to any compromise with government. But some say, government is approaching them independently and not collectively.
Dylan Reneau,
"I want to report that the government has been trying to divide and conquer us because they're trying to have meetings only with the BNTU and not trying to get all the unions involved into it. But you have to understand that if the BNTU has agreed, all three unions have to agree: the APSSM, the BNTU, and PSU. Our members are adamant that we want 8 and 5%. This was a collective agreement agreed to by the three unions, PSU, APSSM, and BNTU, and the government of Belize. This problem can easily be resolved if this government were to sit down seriously around the table and let us compromise. But this government has not been serious about that, this government has taken a firm stance and does not want to listen to the people. And Mr. Prime Minister, as I said in our press conference, we have matured some and we are going to show resolve as long as it takes."
Mark Butler,
"If we can't get a whole deal, no deal. Everything is inclusive."
Paul Perriot,
"The Prime Minister should, if he is a responsible leader as we are, take the stance that he has to decide when he needs to bend down too, when he has bend back some. There is a give and he has to give, I think now is the time. With regards to the taxes, we've asked for them to meet with us and so far we have not gotten any response from them. They are using the divide and conquer tactic play that they have and they are dividing the teachers. The meetings that they had with the teachers and just with the teachers and the public servants are also involved in the salary increase. But that is not our only cry now, our cry is also the increases in taxes and how it is distributed favorably among Belizeans and not just the Belizean poor."
John Pinelo,
"We have three organizations who are negotiating for the same benefits: the APSSM, the PSU, and the BNTU so the PSU will not agree unless the other two agree because in the past they have used one against the other and we don't want that because we have brothers and sisters in the Public Service and will not be a good thing to do. It will not in our best interest either because in the past they have used one against the other and we don't want that to happen."
Later on in our newscast we'll feel the pulse of two other centers of protest, namely Orange Walk and San Ignacio where the numbers exceeded this day's protest in Belize City.
