Teachers Union to Vote on Nationwide Industrial Action Over Salary Demands

The Belize National Teachers Union (BNTU) will be moving full steam ahead with its national meeting to vote on commencing industrial action against the government. The union’s ten branches will meet tomorrow to determine how it will get the government to respect their demand for an 8.5 percent salary increase. The demand comes after a leaked memo signaled an increase in salaries for government’s CEOs and the Cabinet Secretary.  The union says its members believe the government can afford the increase and is willing to take to the streets to echo its demand.  It is to be noted, however, that the meeting is being held without the Ministry of Education’s permission. That’s because the Ministry of Education denied its request for time off and stated that the letter’s tone was more of a demand than a request. Today, our newsroom spoke with the Union’s President Nadia Caliz about the union’s position and its reaction to the ministry’s letter. 

Nadia Caliz, President, BNTU: “We have a list of  different types of industrial actions. There is go slow, there is strike, there demonstration, rally, picketing, all of those things.  And they get to choose the action that they want to engage in at every different stage. I want to give you this example, and I used it earlier.  It’s like being in a classroom, and then you ask a question and you have so many students raising their hands. And you called everybody else except this one particular child. The BNTU feels like that abandoned child. We’ve been asking for the reinstatement of our frozen increments. We’ve been asking for a lot of things. We’ve been asking for those who have not received their increments for years for that to be addressed. And I must say, some of them have received. It would be unfair of us not to recognize that. But we still have a huge number of persons still waiting. And so when you hear  a 20 % increase, those who are still in waiting and those who are feeling the pinch of the inflation that is not sitting well with them. So they began to pressure the leadership of the BNTU and we have to respond. We have to give them the platform to register this content. And that’s where we are.  Except you have the vocal minority and you have the silent majority. So you have to meet so you can get the consensus of the majority. I want the ministry to respect our position. And we are respecting their position. But I also want the ministry to be honest when they’re going to share certain things. We’re not in the business of mudslinging. We refuse to engage in that. We refuse to do the red and blue thing. We want the issue to be the issue.  We respect the fact that they believe that they need more time. My membership, they don’t believe that they need more time. And they need this meeting and they need the meeting and so we’re having the meeting. If you look, and I’ve shared some correspondence with you, if you look at the correspondence that my predecessors have shared with the Ministry of Education over the years when you are getting ready to register discontent, you inform. So  saying that they don’t like the tone and so forth. And this same  government has also received letters of the same nature prior to me coming here because that’s the way we structure these letters. But trying to paint this whole image of being disrespectful and then twisting words here and there is not going to work. I want us to stick to the issue.”

Caliz also responded to statements made by Minister of Public Service Henry Charles Usher, who called for the BNTU to begin negotiations. Caliz noted that while the union is willing to negotiate with the government, it will not budge from requesting a minimum 8.5 percent salary increase. 

Nadia Caliz, President, BNTU: “There are two committees, there’s the cost saving committee and there’s the revenue enhancement committees and they went into the books of the government. So we know what we’re talking about when we ask for a minimum of 8.15. We know exactly what we’re talking about. And the tiered approach that everybody thinks that we’re using, that’s not the tiered approach that we’re referring to.  But there are certain things I will not say to the media. Our members need to hear that directly from us.  So when you get to the meeting, they will hear that.  And then after that, we can share that publicly.  When it comes to Minister Usher’s comment, I respect the fact that he was fair in what he had to say. We will not share the figures that we have either.  They said they need to go back, let them do what they need to do. And of course, in order for us to achieve what we’re clamoring for we have to come to the table. We have to discuss, have to bargain, have to do all of those things. That’s the whole essence under which you have the JUNT, for us to discuss, for us to bargain. Because if we’re going to improve education in this country we cannot be playing the flexing power who more powerful I’m not into that. Education is in a dire state. The teachers are demoralized. We look at the product coming from these students. We want to improve that. We are serious about this, you know. But if my teachers right now will be contented with an adjustment, I need to work with them to get an adjustment because I need for them to be happy in the classroom so that the future of this country have happy teachers,  teachers who are mentally contented. If they don’t understand then I don’t know what else I need to say. But we need to fix education.”

Our newsroom will continue to follow developments between the union and GOB.