NTUCB Youth Vanguard Eyes Unionization of BPO Sector

Young Belizeans make up the backbone of the country’s growing Business Process Outsourcing, or BPO, sector, answering phones, managing data, and keeping global companies running around the clock. But behind the steady paychecks and air‑conditioned offices, some workers say they feel disconnected, unheard, and unprotected. Now, the National Trade Union Congress of Belize is stepping into that conversation. Its newly formed youth arm, the Youth Vanguard, is pushing for the unionization of the BPO sector, arguing that young employees, many fresh out of high school, often lack a collective voice to defend their rights. Supporters say unionization could bring accountability and protection. Critics question what it might mean for investment and job growth in a highly competitive industry. At the center of the proposal is Youth Vanguard Director Ashley Longford, who says the initiative is about education, empowerment, and ensuring that modern workplaces do not exploit a vulnerable workforce.

 

Ashley Longford, Director of Young Vanguard, NTUCB

“In one of my action goals and one of the goals for the NTUCB is to unionize the BPO sector. We have seen on the news and time after time the employees at the BPO sector going through disfranchisement. They are disconnected from the spaces here and they feel that the BPO sector is some sort of modern-day slavery and there is nobody to fight for them. That is one of the goal, to have the BPO sector be unionized. If you notice at the BPO sector, there are a lot of young people. Young people work at those sectors and mostly form the age of eighteen to thirty, even after they finish high school or six form, most of them go to the BPO sector. But the thing is we don’t want the BPO sector to take advantage. So, in having the Young Vanguard there to help them and giving them the knowledge of what labor laws are and their rights are, is a win, win, for the employer and to them, most importantly as well. I think the benefit for the employees is that they have a collective voice. As a union we could collectively bargain for them and that now we could be more to say that this is wrong and accountability truly matter to the employer.”

 

While discussions with industry stakeholders have yet to begin, the call has already ignited a wider debate: should Belize’s fastest‑growing job sector be unionized, and who truly benefits if it is?