From St Thomas Street to Southside Meats to Charter House - the Belize Communication Workers for Justice aren't sitting still. Their protest action continued today - first in front of BTL's office - and then they… took a walk near the PM's office. But that wasn't their main target - they've now taken the fight to Balderamos Arthurs LLP - the law firm of Melissa Balderamos Mahler, the corporate secretary of BTL.
Why? Well, they say they want to see BTL's legal fees, since they've plastered what was allegedly paid to Senator Glenfield Dennison.
It's a messy war but the BCWJ says it's not going to stop them. Our news team was on the ground with them today and Courtney Menzies has this story.
The BCWJ were back out on St Thomas Street this morning, keeping the fire burning.
But since their last protest a week ago, the BCWJ has been attacked by advertisements in what they refer to as a smear campaign. Those advertisement allege that Senator Glenfield Dennison is receiving over $183,000 in legal fees from the BCWJ, and that the members are being asked to pay the leaders of the group a commission.
Their rep, Emily Turner, disputed those claims and added that she's ashamed BTL would stoop so low.
Emily Turner, BCWJ Rep
"I'm very upset about them because this movement is a workers movement, these are former employees of BTL, the PUP and BTL, whoever is doing the smear campaign against us, should be focusing on the opposition party. Why would they expend that amount of energy on fighting workers which is upsetting because this group has always made it clear that we want to maintain that we are here to fight for our rights as workers and that's it. We have not ventured out in having any kind of political involvement, we have made it clear, there's a mandate from this team that we will not make any political statement, involvement, because we don't want to politicize it."
"And I want to make it very clear that they need to stop that smear campaign, they need to stop, we will not stand for it, especially those attacks against Senator Dennison, we are not happy about those comments and those things we have not put out there. I'm so ashamed of them, I'm so ashamed of this company that I worked for, that they would stoop so low to do something like that. They know that we are very honorable people. They must remember that some of us recently left BTL, they are many things we know that we would just not disclose because that's not who we are."
So where did that figure allegedly paid to Dennison come from? Well, according to Turner, it was all part of their strategy after they learnt the legal fees paid to the former workers that went to court. She claims that it was more then 20 million paid, which includes the fees paid at the high court, the court of appeal, and the CCJ.
Emily Turner, BCWJ Rep
"That was a strategy of ours. It was a ploy to get them to focus on legal fees because we had heard about the 20 million dollars and they fell right in it. Like you know you get the mud dirty? They got the mud dirty and stink up because we wanted them to have a discussion about legal fees because we wanted to see who are the people who are collecting this money. Is it people that are on the board that are making decisions about us not getting this severance that are the ones that are saying no we don't want to pay them? Is it that their corporate secretary that is representing them on the board that goes to CCJ that writes letters to workers about severance? Are those the people that are there why they don't want to pay us this money?"
"So I want to make it categorically clear, since we want to talk about legal fees, just like how they took out invoice, they need to take out the rest, that's what we want to see, the big ones."
Reporter:
"So there's no $138,000 legal fee from Mr Dennison?"
Emily Turner, BCWJ Rep
"No no no. it was never- if we are to ever get into an agreement with somebody, every single person has to sign on a document that says that they would agree to that and that was never a part of any discussions. As a matter of fact, our assistance from Senator Dennison has always been point blank it's for free, he feels for BTL employees and I'll say this, because his father was a BTL employee."
But for today, their protest didn't just remain at St Thomas Street. At around 1:00, they went to Charter House, which contains both the law firm for Balderamos Arthurs LLP and the Prime Minister's office.
But, if you asked them, they were just there to get some of Primo's Pizza. Still, Senator Glenfield Dennison explained what they learnt about the law firm.
Courtney Menzies:
"Are you collecting these exorbitant fees that a certain advertisement says you are collecting?"
Glenfield Dennison, Union Senator
"Absolutely not. Anybody who knows me would know better than to ask that question. It is, in fact what it is being dubbed, a smear campaign, and I say categorically that the people of BTL really are miscalculating. The strategy was and has always been to get value for the BCWJ workers."
"I'm here because behind me is the law firm of the corporate secretary. And it is those invoices that the public needs to start to see. Since BTL wishes to talk about invoices, let's talk about all your invoices. Let's talk about how much wealth of tax payers is being transferred to the few faithful law firms that are collecting fees from BTL."
"This law firm acts for BTL both in the CCJ and in the negotiations with counsel for severance payments on behalf of BTL. That is not in dispute."
Reporter:
"So why respond to that letter if there was no serious intention of collecting on it?"
Glenfield Dennison, Union Senator
"We knew they would leak it. We knew they would leak it."
Emily Turner, BCWJ Rep
"They need to now be transparent and start telling us what are the legal fees of this law firm because this law firm the person is their corporate secretary, the person was their attorney at the CCJ, and she's writing the letters on behalf of BTL to come to other attorneys that represent other workers. We know this. We need them to start to be transparent. We are telling the public that BTL prefers to spend these high amount of money on legal fees than to pay us."
And while BTL says negotiations are over and anyone who wants their severance and 6% interest accrued from November can email them, Turner says this fight is far from over.
Emily Turner, BCWJ Rep
"Like I said, we will fling that door back open, nobody can't close the door on us. This has to be about dialogue. Anybody that tells you that they finish negotiations and feel like, no man, what's that? We're professionals, we dialogue."
Earlier this evening, Balderamos Arthurs LLP issued a letter to media houses advising, quote, "While we have no problem with authorized peaceful protest... Balderamos Arthurs LLP has had no dispute with BCWJ and as such are perplexed as to why a protest would be staged at the doorstep of our office… we write to request that all media houses exercise caution in reporting." End quote.
Our news room also reached out Melissa Balderamos Mahler and she told us that she is the corporate secretary of BTL, not a director on the board, and thus she has no voting powers and no say in decisions. She added that she also does not provide legal services to BTL like other corporate secretaries in the past. She also explained that her firm is only one of several used by the company and she also assisted the other 2 senior counsels who were leading the case.
Additionally, she clarified that in regards to the severance case, the fees paid to her office for that assistance is, quote, "significantly less than the $180,000 Senator Dennison seeks to charge BTL for negotiating and advising members of BCWJ." End quote.
