The NTUCB is without a president after Horris Patten resigned from office last November, over 2 months ago.
Patten, who was an executive of the Belize Workers Union, which represents sugar workers in the north, failed to gain reelection to the BWU executive in October 2005, and later resigned his presidency of the NTUCB on November 4, 2005.
Currently, the NTUCB is run by its first and second vice presidents, who are Mark Butler of the Belize Energy Workers? Union and Anthony Fuentes of the Belize National Teachers? Union, respectively.
A new president would be elected at an AGM; however, none was called for 2005, the last being in 2004.
According to the NTUCB?s general secretary, George Frazer, AGMs are normally held by October each year, and they have never come past November. So what?s the holdup this time? Frazer said that there are three main reasons why an AGM was not called last November: about half the affiliate unions, which total at least 8, have not paid their affiliation fees; some had not sent in the names of their delegates; and the unions had not submitted their reports of the year?s highlights to the NTUCB.
Some member unions have expressed serious concerns about the NTUCB?s lack of clear leadership, especially in light of ongoing events that concern workers in the country. One union president, for example, said that all the serious issues against which the NTUCB fought the Government of Belize in 2005 have neither disappeared nor improved. He also expressed that a new budget will be read shortly, and indications are that it could spark as much negative reaction as the 2005 budget.
Frazer concedes that the NTUCB could not effectively fight any of its causes in its present state of fragmentation.
Notably, it has lost one of its most vocal members, Zenaida Moya, who is now seeking election as a mayoral candidate in the 2006 municipal elections in Belize City.
When we spoke with Mr. Frazer this morning, he told us that the NTUCB?s general council does plan to meet next Wednesday, January 25, to set the date for its AGM, at which a new president would be elected.
Last September, Horris Patten, who had always kept himself ?low key? as NTUCB president, was deposed as a the NTUCB?s representative on the Social Security Board (SSB) after he voted for decisions by the board that were not consistent with the NTUCB?s stance on the shares of the Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL).
Antonio Gonzalez of the Christian Workers Union, who also sat on the SSB board for the NTUCB, voluntarily resigned. The two were accused of voting on a motion to lend Michael Ashcroft affiliate, Sunshine, $10 million of SSB?s money on generous concessionary terms.
The NTUCB?s battle with GOB over taxes and public spending last year led to a February 11 agreement under which a Commission of Inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation of Belize was set up. That agreement has to be amended by the NTUCB before a local auditor can be hired to proceed with a forensic audit. Frazer said that this matter should also be resolved by the end of the month.