B.N.T.U. Elects New National President, Nadia Caliz

Close to six hundred members of the Belize National Teachers’ Union turned out on Thursday in Belmopan to elect a new national president. This is only a small percentage of the entire membership. Notwithstanding the turnout, a new president was elected. She is career teacher, Nadia Caliz. This was Caliz’s first time running for president of the union. She bested Ifasina Efunyemi. So, what is the first order of business for the newly elected president? News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

The Belize National Teacher Union has a new president.

 

Nadia Caliz, Newly Elected President, B.N.T.U.

“I have been paying attention to the direction our union has been taking and that is not the direction of the union I joined and I believe that those of us who are stalwarts who understand what BNTU represents for this country, we need it to come back and put us back on the platform where we were.”

 

Nadia Caliz has spent the last thirty years of her life in service to the nation’s children as a teacher. Caliz ran her campaign on job security, improved benefits, institutional strengthening and rebuilding the BNTU brand. Caliz went up against Ifasina Efunyemi, also a career teacher, but no stranger to the BNTU election process. Efunyemi was a candidate in 2023. We heard from her a day ahead of the elections.

 

Ifasina Efunyemi, Member, B.N.T.U.

“I know and have a lot of faith in the members of the BNTU. At the end of the day, the members they get the leaders they deserve. It is just like democracy overall. People get the leaders they deserve because they get the leaders they choose, and even if they don’t make themselves available and are not present for choosing, they are still left with the person chosen by whoever goes and make that decision on their behalf.”

 

According to the official count, after the votes were counted on Thursday evening, a total of five hundred and sixty members showed up to vote at the union’s fifty-fourth convention in Belmopan. According to Efunyemi, this is only eighteen percent of the union’s membership. Notwithstanding the low turnout, Caliz defeated Efunyemi. She secured four hundred and forty-five votes, a commanding victory.

 

Nadia Caliz

“I am looking at job security, better benefits. I am also looking at institutional strengthening and an improved BNTU brand. I am quite certain if you hear certain things about our union they are not things you like to hear. And I don’t like to hear it. So we have to come back to where we were and better and that is the key. Under institutional strengthening it is not just about teachers themselves, but the institution called BNTU. We have look at it. Our union is a continuation, new members come, old ones leave. What do we need to do, we have hear their concerns, address their concerns. It cant just be about the old methodologies and ideas and concepts. We have to merge them. That is the only way we can survive overtime.”

 

The Belize National Teachers’ Union or the “green machine”, one of the nation’s most formidable trade unions went through a tumultuous period, after former President Ruth Shoman was elected in April 2023. And things only continued downhill in the months that followed, leading to Shoman’s resignation. First Vice-President, Jorge Mejia was then appointed as the interim president. We spoke with him ahead of the election.

 

Paul Lopez

“Taking up this position as acting president, what has that role and honor has been like for you?”

 

Jorge Mejia, Former Interim-President, B.N.T.U.

“It is good experience. I am learning from it. And, that might help me afterwards in the leadership position that I am holding. For now, I am ok.”

 

But, the BNTU certainly has not been as active as it once was under the leadership of former President, Elena Smith. Except for one press conference the day before the March sixth municipal election, the union has, for the most part, steered clear of voicing its position on public issues. Newly elected President, Nadia Caliz hopes to restore the union to its glory days.

 

Nadia Caliz

“Being a member for thirty years and serving as rep, school rep, branch president, being in the forefront for many demonstrations, hey I have the experience and I said let me come forward, let me come forward and offer myself and see if they will accept me as their president.”

 

Caliz has been very outspoken about the plight of teachers over the years. In October 2016, the Union went on strike for fifteen days to improve working and living conditions for teachers. The union suspended its strike action after the central government agreed to its demand. There were then talks about withholding certain payments from educators who participated in the industrial action. Caliz, at the time a member of the council of management in Stann Creek, spoke out against the then government.

 

Nadia Caliz, Newly Elected President, B.N.T.U.  (File: Oct 31st, 2016)

“The way we view this agreement over what the strike fund should be spent on and not spent on, we see it clearly as another form of trying to hold a rope over our membership’s neck, making it look as if though we are not concerned about them, making it look like oh I have the money, if unu ever think about going no strike again, mek ah show unu weh the happen, weh ah wah do to unu. Ah nuh wah pay unu. And, we want our membership to understand clearly, that is not the way for anybody to treat you.”

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.