_{Photo: CWU president, Leonora Flowers}

by Kristen Ku

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Mar. 13, 2024

In last Friday’s edition of the Amandala, dated March 8, we reported on the Christian Workers Union’s (CWU) decision to terminate all prior negotiation agreements with the Port of Belize Ltd. (PBL) and, by extension, the Government of Belize (GoB). This decision came after the CWU said the final agreement proffered had deviated significantly from the original terms discussed.

The negotiations aimed to resolve grievances that had been accumulating for over a year among the stevedores, whose income had been adversely affected by the shift of operations to Big Creek and, even though the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal had given them a favorable ruling, they had not received any compensation.

Initially, the parties reportedly agreed on a financial compensation package, $1.50million, which is considerably less than the $4.8million the CWU had been asking for, and a small decrease in the size of working gangs. But the CWU said that subsequent discussions steered off course, and they stepped back because the proposals undermine the terms and conditions outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

In response to the CWU’s public announcement, the PBL countered that the union had omitted critical information, and expressed openness to continuing the negotiation process.

But that was then, and with the start of a new week, stevedores were not happy. “Our members are at their wits end. Having a bunch of stevedores frustrated is not a good thing. The waterfront is never on alignment when stevedores are unhappy, and this is what is happening right now,” shared CWU president, Leonora Flowers at their latest press conference on Tuesday, March 12.

The week of frustration had also reportedly prompted stevedores to conduct an informal strike, showing up to work but denying their responsibilities of offloading cargo, causing ships to leave Belize’s waters.

Flowers mentioned that there had been no official response from the Interim Board or any governmental authority regarding the situation with the ships being turned away. However, according to Arturo Vasquez, the PBL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), emails addressing the position of the CWU about the ships being neglected had been sent.

“Since Friday, we have been having this problem where no boats have been worked on. We have been trying to solve this problem with the CWU. We have written them emails on Friday, on Saturday, and yesterday. We have never had a response to it,” he stated, classifying their behavior as an unlawful strike.

Today at the port, the CWU gathered in hopes of negotiating with the PBL in another meeting, at which point the Prime Minister, Hon. John Briceño reportedly suggested meeting with the CWU on Monday of next week if they agreed to “work in good faith” today.

It was said that gang member Marlon Middleton had agreed, but this was eventually retracted by President Flowers.

“They were trying to convince, probably coerce the member of the current gang that should be out at the pier head, to work the ship in good faith. Coming from them, they should know that the good faith ran out a long time ago. This is for action now. We need the government to step forward and say this is what is on the table. Let’s start afresh. Put it on the table so we can bring this to a closure. We’re gonna stay on here until something else happens, something positive that will bring a resolution,” explained President Flowers, who said she would not wait for Monday.

CWU members pledged not to move from the premises until the Prime Minister and/or Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Cordel Hyde showed up to meet with them. Otherwise, they claimed, whatever happened would be the government’s fault.

Well, if not quite solved, at least the crisis has been temporarily diffused, as this afternoon, Minister Hyde arrived at the port and was able to accomplish what Flowers described as a “breakthrough”, convincing the stevedores to return to work at 6:00 p.m. this evening, as he does all he can to help them receive what is due to them.

With the return of stevedores to offload and export goods, businesses can rest assured that things will very quickly return to normal. But the days ahead will determine if the stevedores are genuinely satisfied with the outcome of the next round of negotiations with PBL/Gob, or if the apparent “return to normal” was only a pause in escalating hostilities.