PSU Invites Transport Department to Negotiations

The fight over the future of Belize’s bus terminal workers is boiling over. The Public Service Union says the Ministry of Transport hit staff with an unlawful ultimatum, resign by March first or be fired, and it’s warning workers not to give up their tenure or benefits. The clash comes as government moves to privatize terminal operations, a shift the PSU says must be negotiated, not imposed. Transport C.E.O. Chester Williams denies anyone is being pushed out, but PSU President Dean Flowers insists every worker reported the same message. With tensions rising, the union says it’s helping employees navigate what it calls a high‑stakes and confusing transition.

 

Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union

“As I explained to CEO Williams, it cannot be that full grown, experienced men and woman would all hear the same thing. And then communicate that what they heard, and then the ministry now say, that is not what was said. We’re not talking about one person, we’re not talking about two person. We’re not talking about three person. It cannot be that everyone across two terminals would’ve sat in a meeting and heard the same thing, which is what was communicated to us, only to find out that wasn’t said. But in any event, what’s important? What’s important regardless of whether the legal counsel and the chief transport officer would have communicated what was relayed to the union or otherwise. CEO Williams said it is four months that they’re giving them. If that is the fact, or if in fact it was forty-eight hours, that’s irrelevant. What’s important at this point in time is that we have notified the government by way of the CEO and the Ministry of Transport, that the approach that you’re taking is not in line with the established rules, practices of the public service. But what’s important is that communication has started, dialogue has started to date. However, we have not received any formal communication from either the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Transport as it relates to the future of these employees. What you know is what I know is what the CEO would’ve said on the news.”

 

Flowers Claims Government Steering Public Services into Private Hands

 

The battle over Belize’s bus terminal workers is widening tonight, and the Public Service Union says it’s part of something much bigger. After accusing the Ministry of Transport of pressuring officers to resign, PSU President Dean Flowers is now warning that the dispute fits into a long‑running push toward privatization, one he says threatens jobs, benefits, and eventually the cost of public services. As the union challenges what it calls an unlawful ultimatum to terminal staff, Flowers argues the government has been quietly shifting key functions out of public hands for years, and terminal management is only the latest step.

 

Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union

“The Ministry of Finance pull off the same stunt with the com corporate with the companies and Corporate Affairs Registry. The Ministry of Finance is attempting to pull off the same stunt with the police tax services department. I want to take this opportunity also to point out the public officers that we’ve been saying this from a long time, as we stated in our press release, one by one, this administration in particular, and it started on that the Musa and Fonseca regime. It is them that drives this privatization of public service into private hands, and it is now continuing under Briceno, Coye, Courtenay regime. These people are hellbent in privatizing public service and we need to see this for what it is. It will come at a cost not only to the workers but to the very consumers who are not necessarily understanding these moves of privatizing public service. You all sat idly by and watch they picked off those company registry’s employees. You all sat, I will by and watch it, watch out and do it with, with Baja Farmers far back as 2000 KHMH, you all sat back and did nothing, and one by one these departments will be picked off. Will be placed in a private hands, and the next thing that I see coming might very well be the procurement of pharmaceuticals, which doesn’t happen. But with the rolling out and the pumping of public funds in the NHI, which clearly is not providing any alleviation on the public hospitals, they might very decide that they want is one pharmacy procurement unit, whereby the pharmaceutical mafias then can then control all the money. That is currently going in the Ministry of Health. This thing is serious.”

 

The PSU says the fight over terminal staff is just the latest move in a long push toward privatization, one it warns could cost workers and consumers much more in the long run.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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