And while there was a lot of complaints from commuters who were late to work, school, or to catch a flight. But, according to Flowers, they are in the minority. He told us today that in the court of public opinion, the unions are on the winning side since most people are supportive of their cause. Here's how he put it.
Dean Flowers, First Vice President, PSU
"I have received several phone calls from members of the public including churches organizations who are saying we are on the right path. It all depends who you speak to, but I don't believe that the louder voice are those who are against the union. Were people inconvenience on Monday? yes, but I can tell you here in Belmopan other than one gentleman who was in a rush I can tell you that everybody else came down from their vehicle and offered unconditional support through the Belmopan branch and I can also tell you that they encouraged us to remain there for the remainder of the day, so clearly the sentiments that you are hearing is not the sentiments that I am hearing and like I said either way public officers have spoken, the police department have spoken, the nurses association, the lab technologist, public officers and it is that until such time that this government is for the benefit of Belizeans including those who may feel that they are at a disadvantage as a result of their loss and I sympathized with them. It shows the importance of unions, because if workers in the private sector are allowed to unionize freely I am quite sure that a lot of them would not have been victimized in my view in the manner in which they did, because let's face it the private sector did not lose money, they simply were not able to sustain the kind of profit margin that they are use to as a result of a broken system in which we see again corruption between the public and private sector, a system in which we see the avoidance and invasion of fair share of taxes."
Flowers said that with their position of rejecting the salary cuts, they are also protecting businesses in the private sector, especially small businesses, who would benefit from the money cut from the salaries.
