BELIZE CITY, Wed. Aug. 11, 2021– Immediately after the government of Belize made a decision to ignore a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which seemed to indicate that the transfer of ASR/BSI’s sugar-loading to the Big Creek port was illegal, and after the last ASR ship departed from the Port of Belize while stevedores had still been engaged in loading, the Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. John Briceño, had downplayed the enforceability of the MOU when he spoke to local reporters. He apparently had been told by legal advisers that it was not something that could prevent the ASR/BSI transfer. This is what was stated by Hon. Briceño to local reporters — not to the Christian Workers Union, the entity which had submitted the MOU to the government and had been waiting for a response. What the CWU has now found and presented to the media at its press conference held on Wednesday at the union’s headquarters, however, was a document of a different nature: a legal contract signed in 2005 between the then chairman of the Port of Belize Limited, Luke Espat, and the Government of Belize in which a commitment was made by GOB to restrict the Big Creek port’s operations to the exportation of bananas. The contract also stated that the Port of Belize Limited would be entitled to a payout if the Big Creek’s operations encroached on PBL’s business.

At the CWU’s press conference, Hyde also read a portion of the agreement, which states, “The parties hereby ratify and confirm their agreement to be bound by the following, Big Creek License, GOB will restrict the license currently issued to Big Creek port to the operation of bananas and the importation of materials related to the banana industry. In the event that general cargo is received in the Big Creek port, GOB will pay damages to Port of Belize based on either the number of containers imported or the tonnage of materials as applicable. These damages will reflect the economic loss to Port of Belize.” He then questioned why the Christian Workers Union only became aware of the agreement after being tipped off anonymously about its existence, and he asked why the members of the union were forced to engage in a search for the document. All the parties involved, particularly the Port of Belize. Ltd., must have known about such a contract. In all previous instances, such agreements have been brandished by a legal team. And yet, the PBL, Hyde noted, did not even refer to such a document. It did not spring into legal action. And the government itself had not mentioned the deal. Hyde then asked, “Why?” Why, he asked, has the CWU been the only entity engaged in the effort to stop this potentially illegal transfer from taking place? He then suggested that there might be a coordinated effort afoot — a “master plan”, he said, to get rid of the stevedores as a bargaining force.

“So all the while we have been here begging to find out what ground we stand on, what position we have. All the while, we were under this understanding that nobody knows anything about this agreement, all the while. And, they have all been in on this knowledge. It is insulting that you can look at us and know what is at stake for those members you see on Dean Street, and, it is the workers who have to be digging up, running done. Trust me; there is a lot of running down gawn on here to even get the MOU, much less to get this privatization cooperation agreement,” Hyde remarked.

He then asked a series of questions: “And our position right now is why is nobody else fighting? Why is it that only stevedores are fighting this? Why? If there is no agreement, if these are rendered null and void, the implications go further than sugar. Because, what happens when you decide that PBL will have a cruise terminal and they state that you will do work on a cruise terminal. Or they decide that they got to fix their pier and close down operations, what happens to our members? What happens to our members if the people who do shipping decide we prefer the fact that Big Creek does not have unionized workers? What happens to our members then?”

“We believe that the very fact that all this has been shrouded in such secrecy, speaks to the ever-growing suspicion that what we have here is organized, that what we have here is a big master plan and one of the objectives of that master plan is to put the stevedores under such distress that they are no longer a force to be reckoned with and our position right now is why is nobody else fighting? Why is it that only stevedores are fighting this?” he asked.

It was also noted at the press conference that since the BSI relocated its operations to Big Creek, two ships of cargo have already gone to that port — causing the stevedores at the Port of Belize to already lose about BZ $186,000 since the transfer.

With this agreement having been signed along with the 2006 memorandum of understanding signed by the GOB and Big Creek, the Union is now appealing to the government to step in.

The CWU president also challenged Big Creek’s environmental clearance to handle sugar at their port. Hyde stated that he is “rather interested to know, since we are on the matter of sugar and those issues, if somebody could explain to me where the environmental clearance is for the ASR development in the Big Creek Port.” He then requested that the BSI produce their proof of clearance.