So what will the CWU members at the Belmopan City Council do? Is industrial action on the horizon? The CWU executives explained that it's not so simple:
Reporter:
"What are the employees prepared to do to move the needle?"
Leonora Flowers, President, CWU
"That's one of the hardest questions that you asked me here today. Because we're already broke, our pay is already small, we have children in school, and this is the only pay that I take home-yes, it's small, but I get to take it home. We must recognize that the people working at this City Council are the people who can least afford to strike or least want to strike."
Ella Waight, 1st Vice President, CWU
"Whenever we have persons working at any city councils-because we represent Belmopan and Belize City Councils-we have to be very honest: it's hard for them to take any action because a lot of them were hired because of political affiliation. Whether it's UDP or PUP, that's the facts. So a lot of them have
this mentality: 'I cannot go against my government; I cannot go against the person that hired me,' and we try to instill in them, from the fact that you joined a union, you are not here now to act on behalf of the area rep of the person who hired you-you're a union member. We go by movement, by what the majority is, and we move. And of course, as a responsible union, we would never go to strike-that's the last action you take as unionists. You go and ensure you dialogue, which is what we're trying to do. The next step is do soft measures, like Friday we're advocating for people to wear black. That shows your discontent with anything where you work. We then go to say, 'I will do a walkout,' so my 15 minutes break in the morning, I'll take it and walk out and I'll stand outside so no work will happen for 15 minutes, and then maybe in the afternoon we take two hours. So it then advances, but we are trying very hard, but it is difficult when it comes to these councils because they feel obligated or committed to the person that hired them."