BCWJ Protests Outside Business Linked to BTL CEO

Members of the Belize Communication Workers for Justice (BCWJ) staged a protest this afternoon on Albert Street in Belize City, voicing continued dissatisfaction with Belize Telemedia Limited’s handling of interest payments to former employees.  The demonstration, which was sanctioned by police, took place from midday to mid-afternoon in front of Southside Meats, a business associated with BTL Chief Executive Officer Mark Lizarraga. The group, comprised largely of former BTL workers, says it remains unhappy with how the company has calculated interest owed to some past employees.  Among those present was UDP Senator Lee Mark Chang, who told reporters he was there in solidarity with the protesting workers and in support of fellow Senator Glenfield Dennison.  During the media engagement, Chang was asked whether his business, Chon Saan, would consider boycotting Lizarraga’s meat shop, which is one of its suppliers.

Lee Mark Chang, Mesopotamia Area Representative: “On a business sense, you know, once we buy, we buy what we need, right? But we have a lot of suppliers, so we’ll just leave it at that. Well I’m just here to support my friend, Senator Denison he asked me for a donation to make sure I feed the demonstrators for the lunch period. So I said, no problem. And so we’re here just dropping off the food. How will you put and say that since the judgement then you will pay the 6%. Man severance starts or the money is due from when you stop work or they terminate you and once you qualify you need to pay the money. I think some of those guys think they’re smarter than everybody else, you know. And they think that…they’re the brightest bulbs in Belize. Right? And they’re just up for trickery and then deception is probably a good word for it. Man, if you owe the people their money, pay the people their money.”

Meanwhile, BCWJ representatives say the protest forms part of their ongoing push for what they consider fair treatment in the severance dispute.  Emily Turner, speaking on behalf of the group, explained that the workers believe the next move now rests with the Labour Department.

Emily Turner, Former BTL Employee: “We’re doing our research in terms of escalating this, the constitutional breach, to escalating this as well to the ILO and in our case the  Caribbean Labor Organization. So we’re putting together those things. We believe that, again, I said we want to work with the process that we have here. So we have the Labor Commissioner that we have to address. There’s going to be a lot that we have to discuss with her because now BTL has put out this thing that negotiations done, so at whose door step they went and left this problem ? Right at the Labour Department because she has the duty to make sure that the Labour laws are respected in this country. So all they did was shut the door on us, but we will use the mechanisms that our Labour laws give us, and that is our Labour Commissioner and the Minister of Labour. So we have to escalate our efforts to their sides now because BTL has removed themselves from the table and I will maintain we did not remove ourselves. We requested to meet with that BTL board and they refused to do that. Based on what the press release informed all of us, we did not know that that was the case.”

Reporter: So you’ll be protesting in front of the Ministry of Labor, Labor Department?
Emily Turner, Former BTL Employee:“We will have actions for them as well.”

Turner indicated that in the group’s view, the onus is now on the Labour Commissioner to help resolve the impasse between the former employees and BTL.  She did add to that, however, saying that she was surprised at the reaction and response from the Labour Commissioner.

BCWJ members say they will continue to press their concerns as discussions with BTL evolve.