Nadia Caliz, “It is an Attack on Our Teachers and the BNTU”

President of the Belize National Teachers Union, Nadia Caliz, has placed the government on notice. She says, the union will not take this lying down. She described it as an attack on the union.

 

Nadia Caliz, National President, BNTU

“If Janelle doesn’t get paid, Janelle lose her home.  And that is not something that is sitting well with us at all.  She has a very nice loan officer right now who did not put her home out there. But it’s about to hit foreclosure.  And then I’m thinking of the teacher that collapsed this morning.  They see a system, oh, next month, for them it’s simple, because they have a salary. They don’t understand what it’s like not to have money.”

 

Reporter

“You are manually taking them off? Why?”

 

Nadia Caliz

“We don’t get it either. That’s the reason why I said it’s an attack on our teachers and an attack on the BNTU It is, right? So that’s the reason I’m saying that. So that’s how we view this situation. And we’re not going to sit here and take it lying down. Yes, as I said, we have been able to agree to a number of things, solve a number of issues.  And we recognize all of that and we thank them, and we still have to sit down and discuss some more on some of these things, but no teacher in this country should work, not be paid at the end of the month. They should not be acting like beggars, begging for payment, begging for advance, trying to figure it out. And then on top of that, some of them are being insulted that cannot continue.”