Yesterday we told you about the Christian Workers Union's press release in which they requested that the City Council provide them with a counter proposal before municipal elections are held. They pointed out that they had given their proposal since 2019 and the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is now long overdue.
The president of the CWU, Evan Mose Hyde, declined an interview on the matter, but the Mayor was more than willing to explain his side of the story. According to him, the reason he chose March 31st to provide the counter proposal is because he refuses to participate in the habit of signing contracts that would extend past the term of his administration and a bind a new administration.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City
"When we received their proposal in late 2019 we put together a working committee to review and draft a counter proposal to their collective bargaining agreement and so that committee met in February of 2020 and we were well on our way to begin those negotiations. We had planned another date for a follow up meeting, but you know what came after that - March 2020 Covid set in. We lost a worker here at city hall, Hugh Pipersburg and so we took the Covid pandemic very seriously and we have maintained that. We keep it here at city hall very seriously. Before we could have gotten that meeting together, the Covid pandemic came. So since then we have been just living day to day. During that time we have been meeting all the demands of the city and you know it, every day people complained about streets and drains and garbage collections. So, our focus have always been since March 2020 just to provide the essential services to the city. We had no time from March to engage that working committee back to put them together again to get together for those counter proposals. We will provide that counter proposal. The reason why is that this council from the outset has made a decision not to bind any future mayor, any future council with last minute contracts with last minute CBA's - this is what got us in trouble. This is what got the government in trouble right now. I could go right now and sign this agreement that commit probably a raise for staff - I could go right now and say commit through a CBA raise for union members 100% and so that decision alone will commit the next mayor and the next council. That is what got us in trouble every single time. So we give them the March 31 deadline. At that point in time the new mayor or the new council will be in office to sit down and negotiate a fair collective bargaining agreement."
The proposal was submitted by the CWU in October of 2019.
