It's been a few weeks since we've last heard from the University of Belize's Faculty and Staff Union.
They kind of went silent after they became fully certified as a union by the Ministry of Labour about 3 weeks ago. That's also when they started reporting that the UB Administration was finally engaging them in good-faith negotiations on how the university will survive 7.13 million dollars in loss to their revenue stream that the institution is expecting to suffer during the next academic year.
Well, they released a statement today saying, quote, "UBFSU demanded access to the University's financial data and on Thursday, July 30th the union's auditor was provided [with] some financial data. The financial data provided is now being reviewed. Concurrently, UBFSU has been diligently examining the President's proposals in the light of safeguarding UB's mission and vision of providing good quality education." End quote.
The Union says that it is concerned that the university's senior administration is moving to drastically change, quote, "established practice regarding faculty workload, (non)renewal of contracts held against established substantive posts, duties, and terms of reference before negotiating with the UBFSU". End quote.
The union is also asserting that because of the UB Administration's delay in engaging them on these matters, the time they have to make meaningful input is extremely compressed. They are pledging that despite this complaint, they will negotiate in good faith with the administration.
PM Says Corozal's COVID 19 Profile As Worrying As San Pedro
At the top of the news, you heard the Prime Minister's concern that there could be community spread of COVID 19 on San Pedro. Well, after the house meeting he said he fears the same for Corozal, where 40 samples have been taken:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister "Turn around and ask the minister and he said 40 swabs were done in Corozal. Again, that does raise the possibility that we may get enough positives that we would have to conclude there is a community spread in Corozal. I don't know too much about the details there, but because I knew some of the details of the positive in San Pedro and how many persons would have been conceivable exposed to that person - that was the one that worried me more. But you can't get away from the numbers, if its 40 people being tested in Corozal you have to be worried about that too."
Reporter 'So the 40 figure wasn't for San Pedro?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister "No. that was for Corozal. The minister couldn't tell me exactly how many they've tracked and traced to be swabbed in San Pedro. But I suspect it will be in that same region."
This evening, the Director of Health Services told us via text message, "The samples taken are just coming into the city for processing so extraction process will start for processing tomorrow.
More will be known about those samples at tomorrow's press conference.
The Garden City Turns 50
Belize's Capital City turned 50 over the weekend. It's a milestone for the growth of the City envisioned and pioneered by George Price. And on Saturday as the Governor-General stood at the foot of the assembly building to inspect the troops, we got reflections from the City's Mayor and area rep about Belmopan then and Belmopan now.
Notable is that two term mayor Mayor Belisle has announced that he will not be seeking re-election. Area Rep John Saldivar says he supports current Deputy Mayor Ritchie Galvez to run as Mayor in the next election.
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"Turn around and ask the minister and he said 40 swabs were done in Corozal. Again, that does raise the possibility that we may get enough positives that we would have to conclude there is a community spread in Corozal. I don't know too much about the details there, but because I knew some of the details of the positive in San Pedro and how many persons would have been conceivable exposed to that person - that was the one that worried me more. But you can't get away from the numbers, if its 40 people being tested in Corozal you have to be worried about that too."