PSU marks its 104th anniversary

The Public Service Union of Belize is marking its 104th anniversary with its leadership reflecting on the future of trade unionism, while renewing calls for stronger protections for public officers and greater accountability in government.  PSU President Dean Flowers says there are no major events planned to commemorate the milestone. Instead, the occasion is being used to reflect on the union movement, its relevance today and the work needed to ensure it remains strong for future generations.  Flowers says a major challenge facing the movement is a lack of education on trade unionism and a shortage of people willing to become actively involved. He says that without a better understanding of the role and importance of unions, attracting a new generation of members and leaders will remain difficult.

Dean Flowers, President, PSU: “Over the last 104 years what we effectively have done is purely defending workers’ rights. You know, we’ve improved pay and benefits across this country and whether you’re in the private sector or not, you have benefited from the negotiations of these unions because it is the negotiations of public sector unions that drives up pay and benefits in the private sector. Of late, one of our primary focus is, of course, is advocating for accountable government and open government. And as you can see in my message today I’m calling for whistleblowers. Nobody should be afraid of blowing the whistle. Nobody should be afraid of calling out corruption. Nobody should be afraid of calling out when there’s a threat to public health and safety. I believe that the union movement has done its utmost best to try to remain relevant and to continue educating and sensitizing the working population, the importance of coming together and speaking from one voice. I think that that conversation has not necessarily trickled into the universities. It has not trickled into the high schools, the tertiary level institutions, because had it been mentioned resoundingly in those institutions then annually as we see an influx of graduates into the workforce they would come into the workforce with that knowledge of the importance of unionizing. However, I don’t think that from an education or an academic standpoint there has been enough efforts to have unionism and trade unionism for that matter as a primary or as a main course to let people know the importance of that.”

The PSU President also weighed in on the current state of organized labour, reflecting on whether unions today possess the same level of passion, aggression and solidarity that defined the movement in previous years.

Dean Flowers, President, PSU: “I think it’s a fact that we aren’t where we need to be from an informed and an educated standpoint across the movement. Training, training, training. Training is important and I think that we have focused too much on the cost of training and we’ve not focused on the cost of ignorance and the cost of not training. And as a result of not engaging in continuous training and development we now have people within the movement who do not understand the roles and responsibilities. And in most cases do not even understand the movement. The movement, the principles of the movement is very simple: individually we can’t do much, if anything at all, but collectively we can do a whole lot. And another principle is if you touch one you touch all, an injustice to one worker is a threat to justice to every single worker within a working environment. And so in terms of training and development I think that is where we’ve failed miserably over the last, I don’t know, perhaps two decades because the reality is if you were to really speak trade unionism and solidarity, people only know solidarity as a word.”

In his anniversary message to public officers, Flowers also highlighted several issues currently concerning the union, including the SARA transition within the Belize Tax Service Department, the treatment of terminal workers at the Ministry of Transport and the introduction of biometric clock-in systems without what the PSU considers adequate consultation.  The union is also using its anniversary to renew its demand for whistleblower protection legislation. Flowers argues that public officers who expose corruption or wrongdoing should be protected from victimization, maintaining that accountability cannot flourish in an environment where employees fear speaking out.  As the PSU marks more than a century of advocacy, its leadership is calling on public officers to recommit to unity and solidarity, while ensuring that the trade union movement continues to defend the rights and interests of workers.