Photo: Marlon Middleton – Chief Union Representative
for Stevedores, CWU and Leonora Flowers, President of the CWU

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Oct. 2, 2023

On Friday, September 29, the Christian Workers Union (CWU), which represents some 150 stevedores employed at Port of Belize Ltd. (PBL), sounded the alarm that the company had increased “perhaps to the breaking point, already strained relations with stevedores…” The Union explained that, while they were in the process of discussing expanded insurance coverage (as provided for in the 3-year August 2, 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement), the Port sought to tie the insurance negotiations to stevedores’ hours of work.

The stevedores’ hours of work has proven to be a sticking point in the relation of employer and employee at the waterfront. The current CBA stipulates that a normal shift for stevedores shall be 8 hours but not exceed 15 hours. At the same time, point 2 under Article 12 of the CBA which deals with Hours of Work states that “a gang shall work to completion a container vessel in shifts, observing the mandatory nine hours of rest.” PBL has long argued that this manner of doing things is inefficient, but it is what obtains in the current agreement. We note, though, that in 2022, a different arrangement was in place for two gangs to work the MV Aries (which requires more than 15 hours of work) rather than one gang per ship. At the time, then president of the CWU, Evan “Mose” Hyde explained that the change was a good faith gesture that came about as a result of discussions the Union had directly with the shipper. Notably, PBL cried foul in May this year when, to express their frustration at PBL that it was refusing to negotiate a redundancy payment to stevedores for bulk sugar going South in July of 2021, the waterfront workers set aside the good faith handshake agreement and returned to the hours of work as prescribed in the CBA.

As it relates to the insurance coverage for stevedores, under Article 9, the CBA outlines that PBL and CWU “would revisit and review insurance coverage with a view to expand coverage for primary health, dental and vision by 1st October, 2020.” That time has long passed, but it appears that those discussions were recently taken up. In their release Friday, the CWU stated, “Those efforts appeared to have made progress until today, when PBL tried to link transitioning to better insurance coverage with changing stevedores’ hours of work. While both insurance coverage and hours of work are included under the current CWU-PBL Collective Agreement, they are separate matters. PBL’s last minute attempt to link the two is reprehensible and unacceptable.” The release added, “What happens next on the waterfront rests with PBL.”

At a press conference today, Monday, October 2nd, CWU President Leonora Flowers revealed that the expanded coverage would come at a greater cost to stevedores, but they had already agreed that they would move forward with the new policy and pay the increase. However, she noted that on Friday, September 29, they were told that PBL “would not be able to go ahead with the new insurance unless and until the stevedores agree to new hours of work.” CWU disclosed a letter from PBL to the Union where the Company attaches a quotation for improved coverage from another provider and the proposal from the current provider at the current rates. PBL then writes, “PBL would like to know the union’s position regarding working hours and whether you are prepared to agree on a way forward that benefits everyone. Grateful if a response can be provided by September 18, 2023.”

Flowers told the media today that they notified PBL that “as a responsible Union, CWU cannot negotiate away terms in the Collective Agreement, the current one, without sitting down and properly negotiating those terms. The insurance is already a part of the CBA; the hours of work is already a part of the CBA, but they want to tell us now, ‘we’ll only change insurance if you agree to new terms.’ As president of this Union since May, I have said several times to the PBL – and we’ve written to them – let us get to the Collective Agreement and at that time we will negotiate, in total, what needs to be negotiated.” In that regard, Flowers says PBL is not undertaking negotiations for a new CBA given that the last one expired in August this year.

Flowers described the move by PBL as a bad faith ploy, but noted that they are not giving the company an ultimatum, as they know their rights and expect that PBL will announce its decision on the insurance matter this week. She added that the CWU will exercise all options available to them, including seeking the intervention of the Labour Department.

According to Flowers, the insurance coverage for the stevedores expired on Saturday, September 30, 2023. Asked about the effect of not having insurance, Flowers says she does not believe that as a responsible employer, PBL would not have insurance in place for its employees. She affirmed, “There has to be an insurance in place … They can try to use it as a bargaining chip, which we are not going to fall for. We have insurance in our CBA already and it will stay there, but we will negotiate and pay for better rates.” Marlon Middleton, the Chief Union Representative for Stevedores commented, “We have a gang working a container ship right now. And they should be covered by the insurance. So, if something should happen, what do our members do then? Let’s say a member loses his arm, so what do we do then?”

Today, Flowers expressed the view that PBL is behaving the way it is now because it expects that the decision to be handed down by the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal (ESAT) will not be in their favour. She revealed that a decision was to be handed down last week Friday regarding the interpretation of the ESAT’s January 2022 oral decision that PBL and CWU were to negotiate a redundancy package for stevedores. She noted that the date for the decision to be handed down was delayed to Friday, October 6.

Still hanging over the CWU’s head are the lawsuits brought by PBL which has the Union conducting continuous dollar drives to pay for legal costs.

We sought comment from PBL but up to press time, we have not received a response.