by Colin Hyde
In 2021, the leaders of government’s employees agreed with government that a pay cut and freeze were necessary to see us through to recovery after the pandemic. It has been reported that public employees had never had their pay cut before. For some reason, his reason, the owner of Channel 7, which rules the news cycle every evening during the week, decided that the union leaders got punked; and like a dog on a favorite bone, he has not let it go.
Last Friday, the leaders of the unions gathered in Belmopan in front of the PM’s office and lambasted the government for paying $6.9 million for a property on the GCP Highway. The government gave its reasons for the purchase; the leaders of the unions and other activists cried foul. I understand what guided the vision of Dr. Polanco and CNO Bell, about the siting of the university hospital. The other matter there involves a whole lot of locking barn when di cow done gaan. That land inventory that Dean Flowers talks about, a whole lot a good folk would scurry for cover if we get into that. I suspect he threw out 2010 as a starting point because he doesn’t want to look too ancient. But if you’re going to dig, dig.
Union leaders and other top talent in public employ oftentimes clash with political leaders. They all talk a lot, and people who talk a lot pride themselves on how they express their thoughts, and their suasion. Sometimes the two groups do admire each other, but usually it isn’t lasting, because union leaders/technocrats tend to feel they can do a better job of running the country than political leaders. I bet in some instances they can.
I like to keep the focus on leaders, because what they do impacts all of us. As a columnist, my business is to try and guide them to make decisions I believe are the right ones for our country. There are many others who are in the business of steering our leaders. When I and they, those others in the steering business, are on the same page, my eyes don’t waver from what those so-and-sos up top are doing. When we, those of us in the steering business, are not on the same page, well, we have a difference. Then I must pay attention to them also.
Some people like to ramp things up. Bully for 7’s hero, Jules Vasquez; he’s always where the news is, and on Friday when some union leaders were flexing in the capital, he was in the middle of the excitement. His approach to the situation could have emanated from some calculation, or from the DNA of some pirate ancestor of his who was closely related to Thor’s thorn, Loki. According to 7’s transcript of the news on Friday, Vasquez said to one of the leaders, “The fact is the government doesn’t fear… the unions, it doesn’t fear the opposition and it doesn’t feel it’s answerable to the media. So what are you all going to do about it?” In another portion of the transcript, this one a lead into a feature, 7 said: “Ever since the Briceño Administration stared them down and won in 2021, the once mighty Union has not been able to bend Government to its will — as it had done with past administrations.”
It’s like the “thousandth” time since public employees accepted a pay cut/freeze during the crippling pandemic, that 7’s boss told the leaders of the unions that they were punked. It’s possible that 7’s boss is about keeping the teeth of our union leaders sharp, or is looking for excitement. I say, no one acts rationally when they’re under the punk smear. Whatever 7’s objective is, noble or frivolous, that decision by our union leaders to step back put Belize first. It is one of the greatest moments in our history.
I expect that union leaders know they are being baited. But they do have a need to show that they are alive and kicking. There is also the hunger of an opposition that has to be considered. Some of us have to keep our focus. I say, overturning the land distribution and sales cart in Belize is a big fish that only a socialist party can fry. Looking at just one of the threads, anyone who suggests that Kevin could have acquired those parcels cheaply for a public purpose has zero knowledge of Belize’s history. The laws of Belize were made by capitalists. You go to court against a private owner, you lose, big.
It isn’t lost on me that something else was on the minds of some who starred on Friday. Mr. Vasquez’s dad was a senior advisor in PM Esquivel’s ear when he guillotined around 800 public employees in 1997, a move that would seal the fate of a floundering UDP government. The Esquivel UDP argued that the slashing of the public payroll was necessary because it was unsustainable. It was floated that the UDP had considered a pay cut for government employees, before settling on retrenchment.
The UDP became the first non-PUP government when it won in a blowout in 1984, but the party lost narrowly in 1989. We can ignore the factors that led to the surprise PUP victory; what is important is what the PUP did while in government. That PUP government gave public employees the highest raises in our history, for 3 consecutive years.
Public employees were poised for the third raise-a-pay when the UDP won a surprise victory in 1993. Immediately after going over the books, the UDP decided it couldn’t pay, and in lieu of the raise, public employees got shares in our prized BTL. Let’s just say the economy hadn’t grown sufficiently to absorb the other two raises, and what followed was the darkest day in public sector history: the massive downsizing of the workforce in 1997.
As night follows day, the salary raises also led to an increase of pensions the government paid out to its employees. Now, 30 plus years later, everyone knows the “free” pension for public employees has become unsustainable. The recent flare-up by union leaders on the land issue isn’t divorced from these negotiations. The government is asking its employees to compromise, to yield to a restructuring of the pension system. Union leaders are saying, what we give up, you squander.
If these negotiations get testy, the main opposition party, which, as their deputy chair Alberto August told Fonso, is not in existence to give ideas to the government, will be around to see what pieces it can pick up. That could cause government to choose to just keep paying. It would be good politics for the present government to leave these negotiations to another government to make sense of. They call that kicking the can down the road. But how long can Belize keep stalling?
Understandably, the union leaders will want to defend the free pension as best they can. Yes, they will point to government squandering and other mischief. The $100 million government pays each year in pensions doesn’t come out of thin air. That money comes from the general revenue fund. I understand the hope is to gradually get public employees to contribute to the pension.
Our union leaders were sterling for the nation during the pandemic crisis. It’s possible they really feel that government made a bad decision when they changed the site of the hospital to a parcel of land we had to pay quite a fortune for.
I’ll leave you with these additional notes on the hospital move. Anyone who pays attention to how the world works will know that interests other than from UB want the hospital to go where it was originally planned. People who won’t live too far from a hospital will find it quite a convenience, and a property value boost. This bad odor near the sewer ponds, my knowledge of these things is that the main problem isn’t caused by, ehm, digested food. The real stinker at the sewer pond is—soap/soap powder/detergent water.