After six weeks of back-and-forth negotiations, the Belize National Teachers’ Union has finally struck a deal with the government, a two-year, four-point-five percent salary adjustment and increment plan is now on the table. It wasn’t easy. The B.N.T.U. leaned on the strength of solidarity from other unions, and with over three thousand, five hundred members casting their votes, the majority said yes to the government’s offer. But not everyone’s celebrating. Some members of the public are calling it a sellout. B.N.T.U. President Nadia Caliz isn’t having it. She told us the fight is far from over as the union now shifts focus to the long-awaited Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Nadia Caliz, President, Belize National Teachers’ Union
“The public senator accused the unions of selling off. But if you look at what is happening here today, union members are here, where are they? Where are the keyboard warriors? Where are all of those who are accusing us of collecting IES from the government? Where are they for this change to take place, it’ll take every single Belizean, even the keyboard warriors to play their part. But when you start that kind of narrative, you the same movement. You want to see take life through your language, whatever you write, whatever you say, you kill it. But as a leader, I stay true to the cause and I ensure that my members understand what is the cause. Because the cause starts with them. We are gonna submit our proposals. One of the things I’m looking at for my teachers happens to be the resource allowance. They spend a lot of money out of their pockets for the classrooms, and we want two things with that. We want that they’re given an allowance either in July of every year or monthly for those resources. The other thing that we want for them. Is that they can use those receipts for the things that they acquire to file against their taxes. So all of that we have in it. Then you have the longevity award. If you are on a particular point, if you’re at the end of the pay scale, let me say for three years, then at the end of the third year you can apply for a longevity award, which is equal to an entire year’s increment. And for the public service, they get to do that three times. For educators, we are only once, so through this medium, we need to change that. So, so that it can match it. And a lot of things that we see public servants being given the BNTU is now looking at mirroring that.”
