20 Employees to be Terminated from San Ignacio/Santa Elena Town Council

Earl Trapp

The mayor of San Ignacio/Santa Elena is at odds with several councillors over their proposal to fire a number of workers. There are currently one hundred and twenty-five employees in the San Ignacio/Santa Elena Town Council, but five P.U.P. councillors, who make up a majority of the council, are petitioning for the termination of twenty contract workers.  U.D.P. Mayor Earl Trapp says that there is no financial crisis to trigger any terminations; instead, he believes it is politically motivated, so he cannot support the move.

Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio/Santa Elena

“I cannot and will not participate in any process which proposes any form of illegality and any course of action against any employees of this council that is contrary to the Belize Labour Laws and I am making it explicably clear, I will not entertain such actions. A move to fire members of staff to make way for their loyalists is political, petty and vindictive. As a responsible council, we should be thinking outside the box. We must be creative and innovative in creating more economic opportunities for our people.”

Patrick Faber

Patrick Faber, Party Leader, U.D.P.

“When it is that the P.U.P. won so convincingly in the last municipal elections across the country, they feel like they can disregard you, they feel like they can walk over you, they feel like they can simply dismiss your efforts and so we today place on record our solidarity with you. And we say to the workers that this U.D.P. mayor has your back and he is going to fight, you’ve heard him say. And as long as he is there to fight, the entire Untied Democratic Party, a mass party across this country, will have his back in having your back to ensure that the kind of victimization that we’ve seen happen at the hospital and in other areas in this town, the Ministry of Works and other areas, will not be something that happens at your town council here.”