"It's a done deal and you either take it or leave it" - that's basically what the Prime Minister told BTL's Communication Workers Union leaders this morning at the Central Bank. The Prime Minister called the Union executive and Heads of Department to a meeting where he outlined the Sunshine proposal.
At the Prime Minister's side were Dean Boyce, who is a Michael Ashcroft employee and a BTL director, and Attorney General Francis Fonseca. The Prime Minister explained that the shares, representing 20% of BTL, have been transferred and registered in the name of Sunshine Holdings and government has been paid for those shares. That means Sunshine Holdings, an investment company registered at Michael Ashcroft's corporate headquarters, owns the shares. The Prime Minister further explained that Sunshine's two directors on the BTL Board will be Dean Boyce and Keith Arnold.
For the 15 years it takes to pay back the loan, Sunshine will control, administer and effectively own the shares. The understanding is that these will be held "in trust" for the BTL workers until the loan is paid off. For President of the Communication Workers Union Paul Perriot it is a betrayal of all that was promised to the union and a repudiation of all the union worked and fought for. This afternoon, he told us that his union was used.
Paul Perriot, BCWU President
"The thing which right now Jules is really eating me is that as employees, our representation for the employees we feel like, or we know now then, that we have been pawns in the whole game. There were basically set objectives I think out of this whole exercise and I think the Carlisle Group and the Government of Belize had their objectives set in place from the get-go. And the main objective is to again put Ashcroft in control of BTL.
The question was asked again, what if we come up with the money tomorrow, the $40 million from a lending institution. Can we buy it and take the control? And it was made again quite clear to us that, no, Sunshine has the shares and Sunshine will keep the shares for 15 years, or until the shares are paid back for. There is no way that the employees will have control of the shares.
We have met countless times with the Government of Belize and we asked these questions: who will have the voting rights of these shares, and a couple of the other Ministers of government have said point blank to us, 'if unu buy the shares and if dah fi unu, unu could vote fi it.' After this meeting we now get the understanding that we won't vote for anything."
As part of the charade, both Ministers of Information Godfrey Smith and Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Jose Coye assured, even argued, at press briefings that the voting rights to those shares would remain with the workers. Well now that they most certainly will not and Perriot questioned the entire rationale behind using Social Security money to finance the Sunshine transaction when, to his mind, the workers were only used as a front for Ashcroft.
Paul Perriot,
"We asked the man what about the 20% or the 50% which the government is funding through Social Security and the government, why don't you give us the rights at least for those ones? That is our money, that is Belizeans' money and we are Belizeans. This how I put it to him: 'why do you allow we as Belizeans to vote for those shares? Why give Ashcroft, his company Sunshine, still the control of those shares?' We haven't gotten any answer Jules. That is it, we haven't gotten any."
Jules Vasquez,
The government says 20% is earmarked for the Union, you fought for that, and now to have the air let out of the balloon.
Paul Perriot,
"Jules it is like I came out of the meeting and I can barely analyze what happened. It is like the Prime Minister and the government just took the BTL workers and slap them in their face. We again feel like we are being treated as dogs. We now supposed to expect Michael Ashcroft to drop all the crumbs from off the table for we because we are down there now. We've got 20% but we'll get the crumbs when he's ready to give us. Jules I can't express the words...words aren't there to really express the feeling I'm feeling right now. After those meetings I'm frustrated."
Jules Vasquez,
So Paul where does the Union go from here?
Paul Perriot,
[Sighs] "Jules we'll be calling a meeting with the membership this evening and I will make the membership decide in exactly what direction we'll be going. Its frustrating Jules."
The BTL Union will hold a general membership meeting to decide its position. The Prime Minister has said that if BTL workers do not take the shares, then they will be offered to the general public. Presumably, the same would apply - Sunshine would hold and control the shares in trust for those persons. For those who would choose to buy into the scheme, the government has never explained who would accrue the dividend yield from those shares, but presumably it would be the owner of those shares, Sunshine, which would make money from the dividends, even in the first 5 years of the Social Security loan when no payments are being made to Social Security.
And while your Social Security takes the force of the blow on this concessionary loan to Sunshine; two things become apparent: first, Social Security is losing on this loan. 7NEWS has obtained a internal e-mail from Social Security Board member Mark Lizarraga which states that the Board was earning 10% on the $10 million at the Central Bank. This flatly contradicts the public pronouncement from Utilities Minister Ralph Fonseca when he said that the money was, "sitting around...not earning interest."
Secondly, as Social Security now earns 8.5% on this loan to buy BTL shares, it stands in stark contrast to the 25% it used to earn as a BTL shareholder, before government forced it to divest of those shares to Jeffrey Prosser.
