But, today the National Trade Union Congress of Belize urged government to change its course and comply with the Ombudsman rather than take him to court.
The NTUCB met this weekend in a special meeting mainly because of this issue:
Ella Waight, President - NTUCB
"Well, as an advocate for for promoting good governance, we find it absurd and disrespectful."
"We feel this action represents a direct affront to the principles of good governance principles that we, as NTUCB, has consistently championed, and that the government itself pledged to uphold in its Plan Belize 2020 commitments. So we are very discouraged. We are very concerned and disappointed. We would like to add that as a Congress and the NTUCB stands very firmly in solidarity with the office of the Ombudsman."
"We recognize that this matter is of obvious public interest; legal costs associated with the case as we all know, are drawn from the consolidated fund and therefore the public funds. And we don't feel that it should be secret or should be hidden or restricted from our public scrutiny."
"We are calling on the government to immediately reconsider its course of action. The NTUCB will do everything within its power to ensure that the administration lives up to its good governance practices. Jules, we are putting the Briceno administration on notice as the national representative body of workers and a steadfast advocacy advocate for transparency and accountability."
"The NTUCB will no longer remain silent while the government targets the very office whose purpose is to protect citizens rights, promote accountability and transparency in public administration, we will no longer remain silent. We feel it is time. It is more than time. We are back where we started with good governance. It was beyond our comprehension that the government would do something like this, take its very own ombudsman office to court."
But that's just what the government has done - and the question now is what is the NTUCB going to do about it:
Jules Vasquez
"But, Ella, it is clear that he tek unu lightly. And he takes you all lightly because all you all can do is send letters and give interviews and come on talk shows. Power concedes nothing without a demand."
"And unless you can mobilize to a mass mobilization against a mass party, you're not talking their language."
Ella Waight, President - NTUCB
"Well, that is exactly what we are doing. This time it will be different. We tried this approach because as a responsible union, we know workers are important. We know we need to get the work of the country done. But there comes a time when we have to say we have to go back to history and what history has taught us that if we do not take action that is deliberate to ensure that our country moves forward positively with the limited resources that we have, then nothing will be done. At this point, NTUCB is rallying our members.as we speak, uniting our members, educating them on why this is important. Because when they go home and they don't have that amount of money, they need to buy the groceries. This is what causes that. When we spend our money recklessly as a country, we are ensuring that they understand why this issue of an ombudsman is so important to them."
