BTL Retirees See Breakthrough as Talks Advance on Long‑Overdue Severance
Days of chanting outside BTL’s headquarters have finally led to a breakthrough. After a hard‑fought court victory and a week of intense protest, former telecom workers say they’re walking away from a key meeting today feeling something they haven’t felt in a long time, relief. Members of the Belize Communication Workers for Justice met this afternoon with Labour Department officials and Belize Telemedia Limited to talk numbers, names, and the long‑overdue severance payments they’ve been fighting for. Their push gained new momentum after a landmark CCJ ruling confirmed that retirees are legally entitled to that money. And while the battle isn’t over, today’s discussions have given the group a renewed sense of hope. Right after the two‑hour sit‑down, we caught up with organizer Emily Turner to hear what comes next.
Emily Turner
Emily Turner, Organizer, Belize Communication Workers for Justice
“We did have a very good fruitful meeting in terms of collaboration, in exchange of information. We have some information; they have some information that they will share with us and so that we can look at some of that data that we have a gap with. The systems that we have digitalized since 2005 to 2025. Those that data is now in the systems. Those data can be validated. So that’s not the challenge. So, now we are just gonna, we’re gonna have to go back and focus on how do we establish that data that we have in that, that we have some gaps on. So now in terms of what we have accomplished today, we accomplished a lot in terms of we’ve arrived at BTL has agreed to pay the severance. We do have now – we are discussing the interest payment that need that would be done and on both sides we have to take it back to our, our groups. And we will be discussing those figures. We are expecting something to come back to us from BTL by Thursday and then we are supposed to take back something to our members over the weekend and then we intend to meet next week. Our intention is to try to close this off in the next two weeks. That’s one of the things that BTL came with and we wanna give, wanna applaud them for that. They have included all the employees. The number they gave us is five hundred and sixty-four. Even people that are not included in our, in our group that we are representing will be paid..”
BCWJ Pushes on as New Concerns Emerge
With severance talks finally moving in the right direction, you’d think the Belize Communication Workers for Justice might be ready to pack up the placards. Not quite. Today’s meeting with the Department of Labour and BTL cleared one major hurdle, but it didn’t quiet the bigger questions still hanging over the group. BCWJ members say they’re still worried about how income tax deductions will affect those long‑awaited severance payments. And the proposed consolidation of BTL and Speednet? That’s another storm cloud they’re watching closely. So, is this the end of the demonstrations, or just the end of the first round? We put that question directly to organizer Emily Turner.
Shane Williams
“There are other issues that you all were joining? Will this settlement quiet you all?”
Emily Turner
Emily Turner, Organizer, Belize Communication Workers For Justice
“No. No. This is just okay so we believe and we have met as a group that this, this worker’s movement will continue. We do have other -r elated to this, we do have the issue of the income tax, for example, that we have to deal with. But then the national issue of the acquisition is still something that we wanna have our input in. We want to understand it. We want to be able to ask for the things that we need to see. We need, like other groups are saying, we need due diligence, proper due diligence. We need total transparency. We need to see these things. So, and, and we also, under this, we wanna form a, we are forming a general workers union where we want to represent workers across Belize in different sectors. That’s the intention of BCWJ. You may see that we may change the name but that’s the intention. We, we won’t go away. Everybody’s very much on board and interested in making that voice for the workers of Belize.”
Union’s Silence Deepens BCWJ Frustration
And while the severance talks and legal victories have dominated the headlines, there’s another part of this story that’s hit members of the Belize Communication Workers for Justice the hardest, the silence of the very union they expected to stand with them. BCWJ members say the communications workers union, built on the struggles of former BTL employees, should have been right there beside them, fighting not only for today’s workers but for the ones who helped build the company in the first place. Instead, they say they were left to rally on their own, organizing protests, seeking legal clarity, and pushing for answers without the backing they thought they’d have. We asked organizer Emily Turner how that absence shaped their fight, and what it says about representation for workers past and present.
Shane Williams
“While today’s a day of celebration, no doubt, victorious, it must be bittersweet that you all went the distance without the union that you all built.”
Emily Turner
Emily Turner, Organizer, Belize Communication Workers for Justice
“Oh, yes. That’s, that’s, I said it to them and I’ll say it again, it is a sad day. We came to this point and they’d never join us in walking on that pavement and standing up for the rights of BTL employees because we all consider ourselves BTL employees. It would not look good for them. It really would not look good for them. And we have, we are there today and we will, we have to say or pat our backs and say we were able to accomplish this without them. I guess that’s why BCWU is known in its history to be strong, but it was because of us and we can say that because now we have shown it the BCWU that Belize saw, that Belize knew was us. It’s not, it’s not what is there today.”
Turner says that silence from the union didn’t weaken their resolve, it only pushed BCWJ to fight harder for the workers they believe deserve to be heard.
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