The union and PBL have failed to reach a formal agreement after months of negotiations and weeks of stevedores? protesting at the PBL?s gates.

Amandala spoke to a well-informed insider of PBL, who said that when the group of stevedores who were scheduled by the BWEA to work tomorrow?s ships show up at the PBL gates at 7:00 in the morning, they would not be allowed to enter the port compound.

The CWU responded to that development late this evening, in a paid advertisement in which it called on all stevedores and their families to show up at the PBL?s gates tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. The advertisement cited the PBL?s move to assume responsibility for the stevedoring at the port as ?dictatorial,? and further said that the management of PBL has ?totally disregarded good industrial relations and the welfare of stevedores and families.?

What complicates this dramatic and aggressive move by PBL is that while the stevedores? union, the CWU, has informed the Government of Belize?s legal advisor, Gian Ghandi, that the union would sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with PBL, the MOU has not been signed, and the CWU stevedores have not registered as employees of the PBL. (Ghandi is standing in as the government?s representative in the PBL-CWU matter for Minister of National Development, Hon. Assad Shoman, who is reportedly out of the country. Shoman was the go-between for the union and PBL.)

Our PBL source told us that the stevedores would be refused entry to the port because they are not registered employees of PBL.

The President of the CWU, Antonio Gonzalez, told us late this evening that his union was under the impression that they had until next week Monday, December 6, to sign up their stevedores with the PBL, and the stevedores could continue to work in the meantime.

When Amandala spoke late this evening to two CWU stevedores, who are scheduled to work tomorrow?s shift, they said that they were under the impression that they would register with PBL on Monday, December 6. The two told us that they are still planning to show up at the port to work on Friday morning.

Our PBL source said that the company had approached the CWU earlier this week and had told them that it would be to their benefit if they at least register the group that is scheduled to work tomorrow, Friday, December 3, so that those stevedores would not lose the opportunity to make money; but the CWU did not accept the offer.

The newspaper also spoke to primary shareholder of PBL, Luke Espat, late this evening. Espat confirmed that the PBL had told CWU to sign up at least 13 of their stevedores with PBL to work the ship scheduled for offloading on Friday, December 3. Espat also said that yesterday, one CWU stevedore showed up on his own to sign up with the PBL, and he is scheduled to work with the port gang tomorrow.

The ships that are expected to come into the Belize City port this weekend will be carrying possibly the largest shipments for the Christmas season, and PBL cannot afford to lose that revenue, said our PBL source.

The PBL source alleged that the BWEA has been working with the CWU to deliberately stall the negotiation process for months now. The BWEA has been specifically stalling the process because they want to make as much money as they can, knowing that the Christmas season is the most lucrative time of the year, the source further alleged. Our source remarked that the BWEA does not want the PBL to take over until after the holidays.

Amandala understands from the PBL that earlier today, the Belize Ports Authority (BPA) had issued them a cease and desist letter, telling the company that it could not proceed with its plans to take over the stevedoring on Friday without BPA approval. However, by the end of the workday, the BPA gave the PBL the green light to proceed.

Our aforementioned PBL source said that the PBL had previously been asked to submit a plan of action to the BPA, but the PBL has been asked to submit details that the BWEA still refuses to share with the BPA. These figures relate to the amount BWEA charges its foreign counterparts for the loading and offloading of the ships.

None of the people with whom we have spoken to date knows exactly what those shipping agents charge their foreign counterparts for the loading and offloading of the ships that call on the Belize City port.

The newspaper understands that the shipping agents (BWEA) may make as much as $5 million annually from the stevedoring done at the Belize City port; meanwhile the BWEA only pays a minimal fee to PBL for using their port.

Espat said, ?We [PBL] cannot continue losing money. The last shipment had 200 containers; we lost income.? On average, Espat said, PBL misses out on $60, 000 to $70, 000 per week that it could earn from the loading and offloading operations.

Why the impasse between the CWU and the PBL? Amandala has questioned. PBL has bent over backwards for the CWU, without breaking the law and international regulations (ISPS code), Espat told Amandala this evening. He further said that there is no reason why the MOU should not have been concluded by now. He claimed that the reason why the PBL and the CWU have not settled matters, has nothing to do with the PBL, but is a financial matter between the CWU and the BWEA.

Gonzalez, however, denied this claim, saying that the BWEA has agreed with the CWU on the financial matter in question, that is stevedores? pension payment. Gonzalez told the newspaper that the BWEA has agreed to increase the pension payments previously agreed with the CWU, and should be issuing those payments to the stevedores as soon as they have calculated them.

Like Espat, our anonymous PBL source told us that the PBL had already agreed to the changes that the CWU had proposed in the memorandum of understanding. The changes, we are told, focused primarily on the article dealing with the drug testing of stevedores employed with PBL.

The PBL, our source said, agreed with the CWU that there would be at least a three-month moratorium before the PBL implemented the drug test. Drug tests are essential for the port to meet international standards, our source said.

Gonzalez said that the CWU intends to sign the MOU after Shoman returns to the country next week.

Espat reiterated that the unionized stevedores are still welcome to apply, and the CWU can still submit its list of people to work the ships. He also said that if the CWU submitted its list tomorrow, Friday, the applications could be processed in time for them to work in the shipment that is scheduled for after Monday, December 6.

?We could have done this two-and-a-half years ago?We will proceed and do what we have to do,? Espat remarked.