NTUCB to Hold Long-Awaited Rally This Weekend

The National Trade Union Congress of Belize (NTUCB) will proceed with its rally this weekend.  The event was slated to take place two weeks ago, but due to inclement weather, it was postponed.  Union President Ella Waight told Love News that the purpose of Saturday’s rally is to bring the unions together and will include a surprise keynote speaker.

Ella Waight, President, NTUCB: “We’re basically running around four themes this year for this March and Rally. Four important themes. Good governance, Respect for Unions, Democracy Now, and Systematic Change. We’d like to share with the public that we are aware that these topics are very important for any citizens of this country, especially workers. When a worker, when a union rallies for a salary adjustment we have to ensure that our government  practices good governance because that’s where we get the monies for these salary adjustments, right? We have to ensure that our taxpayers’ tax money is being spent wisely and they are accountable for it. We have to ensure that we are making, that we have good practices in government to ensure that we spend the limited resources wisely. So we push for good governance. We also have to ensure that we have respect for unions. As you’ve all seen, the recent lobbying from the JUNT team for a salary adjustment led to politicizing of our very own union leaders. And that is not, that is very disgusting in my mind. It is very unfair because union leaders are not there to run for politics. No union leader is running for politics. They were elected by workers of this country, the very workers that vote for these politicians. They were elected by workers to represent them effectively, efficiently to ensure that their rights are upheld. It’s not in good faith to be criticizing union leaders and demoralizing them. That is not the way to go. And of course, Systematic Change. For us to have a country where we can say we are proud of a country that we can say respect workers’ rights, there must be changes in the way we operate. There must be changes in the way we dialogue.  There must be changes in the way that we include workers and representatives of these workers. So we’re lobbying around these themes for the march and the rally.”

Love News will have live coverage of this weekend’s event.