The government says unions already have a direct channel to raise their concerns, but the NTUCB says that system is falling short. The congress has asked to appoint a union liaison to the Office of the Prime Minister after members reportedly struggled to reach John Briceño. His office argues that the Joint Union Negotiating Team already fills that role, but NTUCB President Ella Waight disagrees. She says the government’s response fails to address the communication gap unions continue to face.
Ella Waight
Ella Waight, President, NTUCB
“JUNT consists of three labor unions that deal directly with government services and government workers. Those are the APSSM, the BNTU and the PSU. Those three affiliates are called JUNT. There are nine more labor unions that come under NTUCB. So, what happens with CWU when they need to consult with the government. What happens to the BCWU, what happens to KHMHWU, UBFSU. Fine and dandy that the JUNT has that collaboration with the deputy prime minister and the other three senior ministers. We would never want to remove that. But NTUCB has issues when it comes to national issues that we must address. We have been meeting with the prime minister. We meet every six months and we have been promised certain documents, certain legislation, certain information, certain committees that need to be formed. We leave those ministries and we don’t get any response, we don’t get these documents. We email the prime minister’s office and it is months after we would get a response. Sometimes we would get to the wrong secretary because the email we have is not for that specific secretary. It would be of great assistance, we don’t need three senior ministers, we need one person.”
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