Approximately 36 employees of the recently nationalized power company, Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), who are members of the Belize Energy Workers’ Union (BEWU), spent their lunchtime picketing the company’s headquarters on the Northern Highway, accusing management of acting in “bad faith” in its dealings with the union, particularly over the recent firing of three employees and plans to make another position redundant, and its consistent failure to engage with and consult the union in its plans for the company.
After meeting with employees on Tuesday, the union released a statement outlining several demands it wishes to be addressed.
Topping the list is the reinstatement of three employees whom the union said were “terminated and dismissed without following due process;” next is the permanent hiring of apprentice linemen who have been in training for the last 4 years and, according to the union, completed their obligations as stipulated in their contract. Then there are demands that management accept the union’s new representative to the Pension Committee; that BEL rescind plans to make redundant the post of Plant Operator II at the gas turbine generating unit in Belize City; that employees immediately receive the promised bonus of 25% for 2008, 2009 and 2010; and that CEO Jeffrey Locke “stops working at BEL in the best interest of the company, its employees and the customers of BEL.”
Union president Marvin Mora told reporters that the union has yet to receive any official word about the allegations against the three unnamed workers or official documentation or evidence regarding why they were fired; there is speculation that it may have had something to do with an episode of drunkenness, but even so, said vice-president and former president Sean Nicholas, due process was not followed.
Mora insists that the union, with the support of its members and its umbrella body, the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, has plans moving forward “to take this all the way through…this is not finished until our demands are met.”
He also stated that the protesting workers signify a fraction of the most essential employees of BEL, representing those that could not leave their posts, and that the company, by its behaviour toward them, has left them no choice but to follow their present course of action.
Regarding the demands of the union and particularly its call for the removal of CEO Locke, Mora stated, “… let us talk. Let us talk about the other issues, the bonus and the other issues that are pending. Let us talk about those, but send our people back to their original post. That’s all we are saying, and then we can talk. And then, if the union does not see it necessary to continue to ask for the CEO [to] stop working at BEL, then we back off. But at the end of the day, that is the position of the Union right now.”
The union says that Locke’s actions indicate that he is not prepared to work with them.
The union’s general secretary, Dorla Staine, publicized the plight of four senior employees working at Mile 8 (Western Highway), whom she says face redundancy from their posts in approximately a year’s time despite the company agreeing in a meeting with the union last Friday to not shut down the plant. However, BEL is saying that the plant can be run directly from the Northern Highway site, which Staine contends has been in the works since the 1990’s but not moved past conception.
Nicholas, who in 2008 and 2009 led the union against BEL over the matter of a lapsed Collective Bargaining Agreement and pay increases that were eventually negotiated, says that the union avoided taking a “drastic” route out of concern for the company’s customers, but states that BEL knows “nothing of good faith” in negotiations and would not rule out further action.
For its part, BEL issued a statement late this evening, which effectively attributes the blame to the union for the unsuccessful negotiations. It states that “prior to this course of action [what it refers to earlier in the release as “the public demonstration” in front of its headquarters], the BEWU executive did not provide management with any communication requesting a meeting aimed at discussing any concerns of the union. Management was therefore unaware of what triggered the public demonstration.”
BEL accuses the union of having “chosen not to come to the table” to start negotiations despite their (BEL’s) invitations since 2011, and in fact just today, it says, president Mora refused to accept a letter from management inviting them to discuss their concerns rather than protest. The company claims he decided to go through with the protest before accepting the letter.
BEL, though “disappointed in the course of action chosen by the BEWU today,” says it “remains committed to sharing its plans with staff, engaging in open dialogue and operating in an environment of trust and transparency… [we are] ready and willing to dialogue with the union in order to resolve concerns in the interest of all stakeholders as the company works to keep the lights on, meet its financial obligations and take care of its people.”
We could not reach Mora this evening for his reaction to the statement.