In an interesting turn of events on Saturday, August 21, members of the Belize Communication Workers Union (BCWU), via what has been reported to us as a unanimous vote, booted out their old executive, whose term was cut short by about six months, and installed a new one – replacing Mark Gladden with his predecessor, Senator Paul Perriott, as president.
The contention over the acquisition of up to 23% of BTL shares worth tens of millions of dollars – and how different factions of BTL workers propose to get those shares – features very strongly in the dispute. Perriott, who had served as vice president in the last executive, denied allegations that he is the one who instigated the so-called overthrow to regain control of the union.
An Annual General Meeting (AGM) is due every February or at least the month thereafter; there has been none since March 2008, Perriott told Amandala, indicating there has been no financial accounting to members for the last three years. He also said that members are concerned that the executive has not been filing “grievances” to defend worker rights.
According to Senator Perriott, 210 out of 329 members signed the petition for the Special General Meeting (SGM), which, he said, was a call of “no confidence” in the present executive.
Emily Audinett, chair of the union’s shares committee, replaces Bernard Q. Pitts, Jr., son of Attorney General B.Q. Pitts, as General Secretary.
The other officers elected to serve are: Aura Young (vice president), Leann Bardalez (assistant secretary), Jason Jones (treasurer, replacing Javier Roberts), and trustees: Jason Lamb and Patricia Rosado. The removals have no precedent in their union, said Perriott, who contends, though, that the process was legitimate.
Elena Smith, the representative of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize (NTUCB), who has been in the union movement about 25 years, told Amandala that she can’t remember the last time such a thing has happened. There is often talk of booting out union executives, but to her recollection, this is the first such exercise of power by union members. Smith said she has heard that the former executive committee will challenge the removals in the court.
The NTUCB rep, who was one of two Congress reps to supervise the vote, informed Amandala that about 85 workers attended the SGM. Everybody knew that the SGM would have been held for this purpose and all were still able to vote after nominations were completed, she said.
At the time when the voting was done for the resolution to have elections, 76 people were present, said Smith, indicating that the BCWU constitution does not specify how many members need to be present to make up a quorum. The decision was unanimous, she added.
During the next phase of the voting, those not present at the meeting were able to text in their vote for president. Over a hundred voted, supporting the new executive.
For his part, when Amandala contacted him Monday, Gladden, the former president, declined to speak with us, instead referring us to two other former executives, Pitts and trustee Gary Yearwood. Gladden indicated to us that he is on vacation.
Yearwood raised questions about the legality of the general council meeting, at which the Special General Meeting for new elections was approved.
He said that he knew about Saturday’s Special General Meeting, but decided not to take part because it is, in his view, “unconstitutional.”
Perriott disagreed, however, saying: “We believe that we are on legal grounds.”
Both sides we spoke with shared their perspective on the issue of the BTL shares. The shares issue will be a problem, said Perriott, and the BTL workers need to find a way to, in the end, benefit from the shares.
According to Perriott, the union has been informed that the Government is willing to lend them $10 million to buy the shares, but that would only be enough to purchase about 4% interest in the company.
Perriott believes that problems started when some members said they did not want to start the process of building a trust and finding monies to purchase shares all over again.
[They had been down that road before when the Musa administration was talking with the union about purchasing shares through a $40 million syndicated loan – $20 million of which would come from public funds through Central Government and the Belize Social Security Board.]
The Ashcroft group started a rumor that the shares are valued $85 million; with that, some of the employees got riled up and said they want their money, said Yearwood. Perriott, with a few other “so-called liaison officers” and union members, said Yearwood, claimed that this executive team is not doing its best to acquire these shares. The biggest issue is the shares, said Yearwood: “They heard about money and they want it.”
He said that they were moving to form their own trust to acquire the shares from the Government, which would have nothing to do with the Ashcroft group. This discord is one of the issues that precipitated on Saturday what Yearwood describes as an “overthrow.”
Members also complained that a financial report of the union has not been done since this new executive came on board – a claim to which Yearwood himself concedes. On the other hand, he says that the funds of the union have grown under their leadership, from $40,920.42 at the start of the term to $73,252.91 as of June 2010. The earnings, he said, came from loans of up to $500 to members at a rate of 10% to help with medical and school expenses. When Amandala contacted Roberts, the former treasurer, on Monday, he declined to comment.
Yearwood said – contrary to allegations that the past executive was not looking out for workers – that during the two and a half years that he served, they had dealt with 40 cases, and were able to save the jobs of 35 people total. As to allegations that the last executive had not been fighting the cause of workers, Yearwood said that he knows of one case of a worker from Corozal which had been cited.
Perriott contends that in the incident which happened about two months ago, the union did nothing to step in, although, in his view, BTL cannot just terminate a worker because he or she is protected under a collective bargaining contract.
Politics also apparently factors into the unprecedented events for the BTL union, since the company is now controlled by the Dean Barrow administration.
“The president said this is political and the Prime Minister wants him negotiating for them [to own the BTL shares] and not him [Perriott],” Senator Perriott alleged.
Perriott told Amandala that the past president is very strongly connected to the UDP, a campaigner for Prime Minister Dean Barrow, and members have noticed that because of that, he was not taking the action necessary to safeguard the interest of the members.
That was said about you too, that you are a UDP, we told Perriott.
“People might have said that, but I believe that the members could have decided that on their own,” he replied. “We would fight against anybody that is there…”
The new bomb has dropped, said Perriott. The company, via letter, said last Monday that he is being transferred to Dangriga starting the second week of September.
“I have written a refusal of the position,” he declared.
In response, said Perriott, he was told that “the next option is to go through the door.”
That, says Perriott, is union busting: “We will have another court case,” he added.
Perriott told our newspaper that he has worked for 11 years for BTL and had been asking for a promotion to the post of senior technician, but was told that there is no position available. He finds the timing of the approval curious.
“All of a sudden now, out of the blue, I am now being promoted and transferred,” he commented, saying that BTL’s management is sending him away to a place where they believe he won’t be effective as a union leader.
Perriott said that their biggest challenge right now is trying to get back on track with the management of the union, and getting the management of BTL to respect the union.
Amandala did not reach BTL chairman, Net Vasquez, when we called him via phone on Monday afternoon.