And while government now has some breathing space, which will allow it to field different options, the situation remains very tight. The one player that everyone's been ignoring, and quite possibly the most important player, are the BTL workers who say they are tired of being thrown back and forth between owners. This morning they sent a strong and startling message when the entire national phone system was shut down between 6 am and 9 am. 7NEWS has confirmed that this was a deliberate act to send a message to government that the phone company's workers have had enough of what it considered disrespect from the Government of Belize. And it sent a message not only to Belmopan, but right across the nation where all operations were crippled without the uses of telephones, cellulars, faxes, internet, and e-mail. Today BTL workers continue to show militance when they walked out of work and 7NEWS was there, here's the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Around 10 this morning BTL employees literally 'walked out of their offices at the company's St. Thomas Street headquarters. They walked into the compound and wrote posters like this one which read 'Ashcroft and Prosser stay away from our company.'
About 30 minutes later over 200 of the company's employees then walked out of the company's compound and onto St. Thomas Street hoisting their placards in a peaceful protest. For about an hour the workers endured the stifling heat and picketed up and down St. Thomas Street to make their point. There was no chanting - only honking horns - because the signs said it all.
Worker #1: What we are demonstrating for is because we have always been owned by a foreign investor. Our Minister says keep our money at home and yet the sold out both of our utilities to foreign investors. What we are fight for is to take back our BTL and make it a Belizean owned company.
Worker #2: We want our Belizeans to take back the company 'cause our money keeps going out of the country everytime.
Worker #3: We're asking the government that we want this company back into the hands of Belizeans, that's basically it at this moment.
Worker #4: We want back BTL.
KS: How far are you willing to go to get that?
Worker #4: As far as we have to go to get back BTL to the Belizeans them.
Worker #5: We are in protest of the foreign takeover of the company. We are out here to show our discontent with the foreign ownership of the company.
Paul Perriot, Union President
"We are not only sending a message to Mr. Prosser. We are sending a message to Mr. Prosser, Mr. Ashcroft, and to the government of Belize that the employees are not willing to work under these guy's regime anymore. It is not only an employee issue because if we look at what is happening right now, we know that the effect of those guys running BTL won't only affect we the employees, it will affect the general public. We hear of how much many they take out of the company which could have been used to implement services in rural areas and which could have been used maybe in cutting the cost of phone calls. So that is what we are deciding now, that if we need to do it, we the employees need to take control of the company."
The employees were led by their union and its President Paul Perriot. It was an official walkout, not a strike. Perriot said this is merely the start.
Paul Perriot,
"Its actually a walkout. We are organized in a sense to show the public, or the government, that we are together in whatever we are planning to do. It is not a strike action, we haven't implemented any strike action as yet."
The workers aren't on strike but Perriot says his co-workers are frustrated. And that frustration is the official explanation for this morning's 3 hour communication blackout.
Paul Perriot,
"We understand that they had some problems. You know it all points to what is happening now, frustration. I can't tell you exactly what happened or how it happened but I guess the public is out there watching and they could get that the employees of BTL are frustrated."
Keith Swift,
So was it a deliberate action on the part of employees?
Paul Perriot,
"No, no. I can't mention how that happened because I really can't tell you how it happened but I do know that it has a lot to do with frustration."
Frustration which should be ratcheted up a notch or two as the developments of the next two days are expected to make it clear that the dream of a BTL controlled by management and staff is in serious jeopardy.
This evening, BTL's staffers gave their words some permanence when they posted a sign at the gate of the Esquivel Telecom Center saying, 'Ashcroft and Prosser back off! We noh want unu yah! GOB resolve this issue and mek we the employees get BTL now.'
