Will the Public Service Union Strike over SARA Implementation?

PSU President Dean Flowers has confirmed the department will declare a trade dispute over its looming transition into the Semi-Autonomous Revenue Agency, SARA. Flowers says every concern raised by the union has been ignored or brushed aside and claims the government has only met with them once on the issue. Prime Minister John Briceño insists the shift is necessary for efficiency and revenue growth, but admits the union has the right to strike if it chooses. So, what could industrial action look like, and how far is the union willing to go? Dean Flowers gives us the inside story.

 

Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union

“As an essential services department, the law mandates that we give the Minister of Labor an opportunity to try to resolve the impasse that clearly now exists between the employees, the union, and the Government of Belize. And so by law, we must serve that notice. As it relates to any form of industrial action that we may be prepared to engage in., there are many things that we can do. Industrial action comes in many forms. And of course, the final stage of any industrial action is strike action, which comes at the end of what could also be a marathon of processes in terms of different, in forms of industrial action that we can engage in. So we’ll take it one step at a time. Today’s Thursday.  I will do my best to serve the minister either there tomorrow of that notice and thereafter, we will await to see what kind of intervention comes from the Ministry of Labor in an effort to address the concerns that has been raised by the union on behalf of its members and on behalf of this country, which is at risk of losing revenues that is currently earmarked for essential services.”