PSU Holds the Line as National Support Grows

The Public Service Union is standing firm, and they’re not standing alone. P.S.U. President Dean Flowers says the union is staying the course in its fight for fairness, and now they’re getting backup. Utility unions and other affiliates of the NTUCB are joining forces under the ‘Save Belize Campaign,’ showing solidarity with public officers and teachers. But Flowers isn’t just talking about salaries, he’s also raising serious questions about a decades-old airport concession deal and a sharp hike in departure taxes. According to him, it’s time to hold leaders accountable.

 

Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union

“We will stay the course. We have no other option but stay the course. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the utility unions who have reached out to the joint unions, who have sent their solidarity out to the unions publicly, who have met consistently over the past two weeks with the unions and who will join that ‘Save Belize Campaign with the other affiliates of the NTUCB and I want to acknowledge them this morning for that. Belize, we have an opportunity here, not simply to get equity in the public service for teachers and public officers, we have an opportunity here to hold our elected leaders accountable. We want to speak about the airport authority, the concession company. It seems that we forgot that that thirty-year concession which we couldn’t see expired two years ago. Was it renewed? And for how long was it renewed? Word is ninety-nine years. These are people who are not putting in even a cent in the airport because they are charging the departure tax now at forty-five U.S. dollars, overpricing the industry. So when the Minister of Tourism said two days ago that we did get wahn drop, of course we wahn get wah drop because unu have people who fleece di airport fi thirty years without putting in a cent, and now raising the departure tax to fund the expansion.”