Today the PM lamented the BNTU's decision, saying that the Minister of Education has met with them repeatedly, and insinuating that the union's leadership may not be properly informing its members, since Fonseca has explained that the issue stems from a 6 year backlog. While he acknowledged that it's their right to demonstrate, he believes they're too quick to take to the streets.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We've always been meeting with the BNTU, they could never say that Minister Fonseca- they just met last week I think and they've been discussing this issue, most of this issue are issues that start at the management and if the management doesn't send it to the ministry, the ministry can't process it. That is one. Secondly, it's unfortunately that the BNTU for everything, oh they want strike, they want strike. I mean, we need to be real, we need to be serious, now I understand, and I don't want anybody to take this out of context, I understand the teachers need the. Money, and they deserve the money, they work so hard, and everything, my mother was a teacher, my wife was a teacher, so I know what it is that the hardships that they go through to be able to be a good teacher. But what the BNTU is not telling you and Minister of Education, Minister Fonseca pointed out to me, he said, listen, we have been clearing up a backlog. There was a backlog from 2018 and now we've been bringing up this backlog, it's all the way up to 2023."
"So now we're working on 2024. And so it's unfortunate but as I always tell everyone, it's a free country, they are unions, and if they believe they need to go and protest, that is their right. As a government, if they want to speak with us, we're prepared to sit down with them, and I have every confidence that CEO Maheia and probably Minister Fonseca would speak to them and talk to them. The leadership knows what we're doing and I think it's incumbent on them to explain to explain to their members what's happening and as much as they want the money, and I understand that, we are working on it, and doing our best to be able to give them what they rightly deserve."
