Scrapped Meeting Deepens Rift Between PSU and Government

The PSU–government relationship was already strained long before this week’s Transport Ministry clash. Things cracked last week when a long‑planned meeting between PSU leaders and Financial Secretary Joseph Waight was suddenly cancelled. That meeting was supposed to address major changes at the Belize Tax Service Department and the wider public‑service overhaul. Instead, the cancellation fired up the union even more. PSU President Dean Flowers says Waight’s silence now speaks volumes. He believes the government is dodging tough questions at a time when public officers want clarity, especially with IDB‑backed reforms underway. Flowers isn’t just upset about a missed meeting; he’s questioning whether the people driving these reforms are willing to face the workers expected to carry them out. Here’s how he responded when asked about the cancellation.

 

Shane Williams

“I don’t know if there’s an update on the meeting that was canceled in terms of the Sara, but this must be frustrating for the union and for you personally as president.”

 

Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union

“It’s very frustrating Shane. It’s extremely frustrating. Yesterday right before I entered very important meeting with the IDB I got, I, these calls were coming in unfortunately our visitors from the IDB did not see a calm president. There are terms when I can calm. It is just a reflection of the frustration by the Briceño administration that is hellbent on violating the rights of public officers and that is hellbent on putting public services in private hands. This is their mantra. It started under Fonseca and Musa and it now continues under like I said, Briceño, Coye, Courtenay, because those are the major players in all of this recent statutorization and privatization of public service that is occurring.”

 

Shane Williams

Is there an update on the cancel meeting for SARA?

 

Dean Flowers

“As it relates to Sara for date, we have not heard absolutely nothing from the financial secretary. As a matter of fact, I know he absented himself from the IDB MPS meeting yesterday, which focused on modernizing of the public service. I don’t know what he’s hiding from or who he’s fighting from, but at the end of the day, we have to sit around the table and I’m hoping that the. Ministry of Labor. I’m hoping that the labor commissioner will start doing her job. If the labor commissioner was doing her job, that meeting that was canceled would’ve never been canceled because she would’ve been there to, to chair that meeting if the labor commissioner was doing her job.”

 

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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