BELIZE CITY, Mon. May 17, 2021– Over the weekend the leadership of the Belize National Teachers Union sought feedback from its membership in an effort to obtain a mandate on how to proceed following their receipt of the Prime Minister’s “last, best offer.”

Last week the Prime Minister submitted what he described as his last offer to the Joint Unions in the form of a letter after he had publicly disclosed the contents of the proposal in a televised public address. The national president of the BNTU, Elena Smith, had been angered by what she called the cowardly move.

This morning, on a local morning show, Smith said that a majority of the members of the union’s 10 branches countrywide had voted to continue their industrial action in order to express their dissatisfaction with government’s proposals and actions.

The unions are now calling the government back to the negotiating table once again.

On Sunday evening, the BNTU indicated to the police that the union’s membership would be engaged in protest actions once again. The members took to the streets early this morning, blocking traffic on the major roadways countrywide.

In Benque Viejo in the Cayo District, four teachers were arrested this morning by police while in the process of setting a tire on fire. Two of these teachers were charged and two others were released, after the president of the Benque BNTU branch reportedly posted bail for them.

Cars belonging to members of the BNTU were used to block the main bridges and roads in Belize City, and a two-mile traffic jam could be seen on the Philip Goldson Highway. Scores of commuters waited in line until the Haulover Bridge was unblocked.

A similar scene could be observed on the John Smith Road, where vehicles deployed by the BNTU straddled the road, thus blocking buses and cars. Commuters waited outside those immobile cars and buses until the teachers were ready to move their cars. The blockade in that area lasted about an hour.

Reports also indicate that for a short time the Belcan Bridge and the BelChina Bridge were also blocked by a small number of vehicles belonging to union members.

At Mile 6 on the George Price Highway, teachers blocked the bridge at that location, causing more interruptions in the flow of traffic, and near Mile 41 on the same highway, a more sizable traffic blockage was staged.

Up north in the Corozal District, the area just outside Libertad Village was blocked off by teachers as well, and in Orange Walk, teachers staged blockades in the Santa Martha village and Carmelita.

In Toledo, teachers also staged a sizable protest, which prevented the flow of traffic on the main road in Punta Gorda.

When he was interviewed today, the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, while acknowledging that his department has been taking a hands-off approach in the way they address the actions of the unions, pointed out that members of the public are starting to display signs of frustration with the constant inconveniences caused by the unions’ acts of resistance.

“We try as best as we can to be hands off or to exercise restraint so as not to have any confrontation with the teachers that will result in any civil disobedience. I don’t think our country needs any civil disobedience now, as that could further add to our economic constraints that we are currently faced with, and so we will continue to see how we can tiptoe or exercise restraint with these demonstrations,” Williams said.

He then added, “ I will say that it is rather frustrating, because at the end of the day, whatever it is that they are doing with these road blockages, it is creating significant inconvenience to the broader public — people who have to get to work by a certain time, people who need to go to the airport, people who need to go to the hospital, so it is causing inconvenience to people and the citizenry are getting frustrated with it as well, so I would hope that the teachers would, are going to rethink this position. It is counterproductive and it is getting people frustrated, and eventually, we will have to not be too hands-off and do what needs to be done to ensure that the highways are clear.”

Commissioner Williams then proceeded to issue words of caution to the teachers who have been involved in staging the blockades: “May I also remind the teachers that blocking the highway is an offense, and while, yes, we have been very patient and we have exercised restraint, when the public gets too frustrated, then we will have to ensure that something is done to allow traffic to flow and get people to where they need to get within a reasonable time,” he said.