Last night, we showed you how high-level members of the National Trade Union Congress Of Belize were in Orange Walk Town to show support for the protesting farmers of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association. They even got an amplification of their main messages from the Orange Walk Branch of the Belize National Teachers Union, since some teachers from Orange Walk and Corozal are also cane farmers.
On Wednesday evening, our colleagues from CTV3 News caught up with the NTUCB President and the Labour Senator, both of whom were visiting with the protesters. They said the NTUCB must show support for this group of Belizean workers:
Luis Luke Martinez - President, NTUCB
"We've been making trips to Orange Walk since last week. We've been meeting with the cane farmers association, to get the facts, so that we could identify areas where we could show support. We could identify areas where we could encourage the farmers to come together, to unite, and to unify, where we could encourage the government to make a meaningful intervention on behalf of the cane farmers."
Hon. Elena Smith - Labour Senator
"Today's presence is to show that the cane farmers have support and that support comes via the NTUCB. We must understand as workers that we must not just sit by, and watch other workers being taken advantage of, and we do nothing or say nothing. We must show support, for whichever group it is. Along as they are workers, we too are workers, and when we are doing our demonstrations, whatever that may be, we have support as well. So, if you want to ensure that people's rights are respected, that they are treated fairly then you ought to give that support."
As viewers are aware, part of the dispute over the interim agreement was that Prime Minister Briceno proposed that it would expire in April 2022. The government was basically conceding that they would no longer intervene and that only the 3 smaller associations and farmers who had individual contracts with the mill would be able to deliver their cane after that date. There was concern that this outcome would cause the BSCFA to splinter since farmers would have to leave their association to enter an individual agreement with the mill.
That topic came up in the conversation with the NTUCB members, and here's what they had to say:
Luis Luke Martinez - President, NTUCB
"We met with them last week as well. I'm not going to go into what that conversation was, but we did meet with them, and we're open to meeting with them again."
Hon. Elena Smith - Labour Senator
"We got their side of the story, and we tried to put forth to them that we don't expect, or we don't want for BSI to be doing things that would be dividing the association. So, in unions, we say union-busting, and it would be the same. If you are going around the association and going to farmers individually, then that's a sign of - you know - you're busting the association. That's what you're trying to do in essence, and we have said to them, listen, that's not the way how we operate. You should not operate in that type of fashion. There's an association. You respect their right as an association, and you go through them, not to individual farmers, because when you do that, you are deliberately breaking up these associations by that kind of action."
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