And the CWU is juggling the PBL 35 issue as well as the unsigned Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Belize City Council. They met before the election, and the union was hoping that they would get it signed before March 6th. But that never happened. Today the president told us what the holdup is.
Leonora Flowers, President, CWU
"Today, though, we had a meeting with the mayor, three of his councillors and three employees along with their attorney. And so we're moving incrementally, albeit slow, but we're hoping to move forward."
"We're anticipating a response from them by next week as to when we'll have another meeting. It's no secret that the council wants to use a document that has not been effected into law. And so a prudent union will not allow that to happen."
"So that is the pullback of moving this whole process forward. As I understand it, that document is a product of the Times of Minister Godwin Hulse. That's what I was told. He was a part of that. And it was being prepared and for use by the councils, thgroughout the country."
"But it was never brought into law. As I'm told, and I asked today that probably they could tell us what happened, why the document has been so put aside for so long. Although the Belize City Council seems to be the only council that wants to use that document, I've been asking from other unions across the country if it is being used."
"It's not being used by anyone, only the Belize City Council want to put it forward. But it has not been brought into force. It is not a part of any document put on us or given to the country by the Labor Department."
"So we don't want to have the labor laws superseded by any other document or our CBA superseded by something else. We are looking at the labor laws and then our CBA."
