In last night’s newscast, we gave you extended coverage of the Prime Minister’s press conference on his second set of counter proposals to the BNTU on their 8 good governance demands. Due to time, we were not able to properly put those comments in context for you, so today, with more time to digest the positions from both sides, we prepared a bullet-point look at the different perspectives on the same 3 and a half hour meeting. Here’s what the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Teachers Union had to say:
Daniel Ortiz
"Majority of the demands have been a seeded or the government has agreed to move on them. Would you accept that as your position?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"Yes I would."
Luke Palacio - National President - BNTU
"We believe that the prime minister could have done better."
Daniel Ortiz
"So will the strike end tomorrow based on your perception of how the meeting went?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"I can't tell you that answer you would have to ask the BNTU. I believe it should end but I can't tell you whether or not it will end."
Reporter
"Are you guys going back to the classroom tomorrow? Do you continue with your strike action? Where do you stand as a union?"
Luke Palacio - National President - BNTU
"We continue our strike action tomorrow because we are not satisfied with the outcome of what has transpired."
Micah Goodin - Krem
"What measurements are you putting into place that would ensure that today that these promises that you made will be in fact fulfilled or completed? Because it's just another politician's promise."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"We have taken these negotiations with the BNTU very seriously. There is a strike currently in progress that is of fundamental concern to government, to parents, to citizens. There is no way that in an effort to resolve the problems with the BNTU we will make promises that we don't keep. If you don't want to believe the fact which is proven empirically by all the evidence in the world you can ever look at that I am a man of my word. You can rely on the consequences which would be shit and severe in the circumstances if I did not do what I have committed to do."
Reporter
"Mr. Palacio what was different between this meeting and the last one two weeks ago?"
Luke Palacio - National President - BNTU
"What was different? The difference is it got worse because basically we thought that we would have made some movements today. There were certain issues that we thought we could have moved on to get the prime minister to agree but instead we see that it has gone in a different direction."
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