BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Jan. 27, 2022– Unloading of shipping containers at the Port of Belize is currently on pause after all gangs of stevedores employed at the Port of Belize (PBL) decided to engage in a full-scale strike following a unanimous vote on Saturday afternoon by members of the Christian Workers Union (CWU), to which the stevedores belong. It is a standstill in operations that, according to the CWU, the stevedores had been trying to avoid, but that became a last resort after the stevedores found themselves at an apparent dead-end with the PBL enterprise in their efforts to get their concerns addressed. Ultimately, the trigger which led last Thursday to a protest by the gangs who were scheduled to unload the cargo ships was PBL’s rejection of key recommendations from the stevedores’ general foremen—recommendations aimed at ensuring the safety of the stevedores, many of whom find themselves working at heights of 50 or 60 feet in varying weather conditions, with dangerous equipment. That has resulted in a standoff in the industry that could affect the supply chain of a number of local retailers. But at a Christian Workers Union (CWU) press conference that was streamed online yesterday, the union’s president, Evan “Mose” Hyde, said that it didn’t have to come to this.
And in contrast to what was suggested in an apparent media blitz featuring Chamber of Commerce representatives—a series of statements and video bytes that seemed to create an impression in the public’s mind that the high prices being seen in stores for over a year are somehow the fault of the stevedores—Hyde pointed to a number of players that have contributed to the current situation: the PBL, a private entity whose affiliates have spent more money (reportedly $10 million) preparing a plan for a cruise terminal at the port, that has so far not been approved, than it is willing to spend to compensate stevedores due to the loss of their earnings ($5 million); and a government that has willingly overlooked a memorandum signed years ago that possibly made the transfer of sugar-loading to Big Creek illegal, and which has not seemed willing to step in to broker a truce for the stevedores as it has readily done in the sugar industry. The purpose of the press conference was to show the public that the stevedores were willing to negotiate and consider offers that are serious, in contrast to recent proposals by PBL that seemed aimed at mocking and insulting them. He, in fact, pleaded, on behalf of the stevedores, for the government to get involved in mediating the negotiations—something that is in fact its duty.
Hyde stated at the press conference that since the stand-off on Thursday, a number of meetings were held between the CWU, PBL, the Belize Port Authority, and even the new Minister responsible for Public Utilities and Logistics, Hon. Michel Chebat, to resolve the issue. According to Hyde, all those meetings were fruitless. “Unfortunately, proposals about reducing the number of gangs, and comments made in the media by the receivership’s management concerning issues surrounding the loss of sugar earnings, exacerbated open wounds and has now placed the unresolved gridlock negotiations of finding a financial settlement in the aftermath of the sugar lost, in the front and center of everything,” he said.
According to Hyde, what the Port of Belize Ltd. has been suggesting is that the stevedores consent to the reduction of the number of workers in each gang from 8 to 6, so that those stevedores who are not terminated can work longer hours and thus make more money. In other words, the PBL said that some stevedores could make more money if they accepted what many would see as an act of treachery—consenting to the exclusion of 28 stevedores (since each gang includes 14 persons) so that the others who remain can earn more. Hyde compared what was being suggested to abandoning some of one’s brothers—leaving them to perish in the desert—so that a few could be guaranteed more water. The unions have made their stance on this suggested act of disloyalty clear, stating that this suggestion is not only unacceptable but also preposterous. They also rejected a proposal that they be compensated with their own retirement earnings—in other words, being paid with what is already theirs.
Hyde went on to state that the union believes that looking back is important to understand the current scenario—where a private entity is wielding power over an essential utility that is for the public good, and is making decisions designed to maximize its profits rather than ensure public welfare. He pointed to the privatization of the PBL almost 20 years ago, and the subsequent placement of the port, a little over a decade ago, under a receivership—when, according to knowledgeable sources, the Ashcroft-owned Belize Bank became a receiver in control of the port, which is an arrangement that was not to have lasted for such a long time. That privatization of the port was what he called the original sin. In his remarks, Hyde said, “We believe the way forward is to look backward and to let history guide our judgment and our consciences. To understand now, where we are right now, you must understand the privatization of the port. We put this matter squarely in the hands of the Briceño administration. Our membership has borne the worst of the anguish caused by that original sin.”
In February 2019, the Government of Belize sanctioned a loan to BSI of US $15 million dollars delivered from IDB Invest, an institution that is a private arm of the IDB Group. According to the release issued by the IDB, the loan was earmarked to “increase its production and exports of higher value-added sugars, diversifying its export markets and strengthening its value chain.”
OHyde said that the investment funded BSI/ASR’s move to Big Creek. This loan was backed by the government to help the sugar cane industry mitigate transportation costs. “CWU cannot argue that the wellbeing of our brothers and sisters in the cane industry is not of national importance. What we are arguing today, is that the plight of our brothers and their families who now sit in the sewer tanks of your privatization adventures are of national importance as well,” he stated.
Hyde, in tracing the timeline that led to the current situation, went on to note that the union, after becoming aware of rumors of a relocation of sugar-loading to Big Creek, wrote to Prime Minister John Briceño in May 2021 to outline the problems brewing on their end. He said a month passed before the PM responded—after stevedores brought unloading/loading of the sugar boats to a halt. The CWU then wrote to the Department of Labor in July 2021, issuing a notice of industrial action, after which, on the 21st of that same month following a meeting with the various parties, they agreed to negotiate on the matter in the presence of the Ministry of Labor.
The Ministry then decided to pull out of those negotiations and announced that the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal would take over the issue, and the union rejected this apparent withdrawal of the government from the process and requested that its sister union, the NTUCB, withdraw its representative from the tribunal in support of the CWU. The Labor Ministry eventually returned to chair the tribunal, but in the words of the CWU president, the negotiations “failed miserably.”
“To be refused compensation in a negotiation is not unique, but to have as the final offer given to us a proposal that featured the issue of a percentage of our members’ earned retirement entitlements conditional on the reduction of stevedore gangs. An absolutely grotesquely timed suggestion, the equivalent of which is to meet a group of brothers struggling with thirst in the desert and to inform them that there would be a little bit of water available on the condition that they would leave some of those brothers behind,” Hyde stated in reference to those proposals, which were seen by the union members as an insult. He went on to note that this proposal was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, and as a result, the membership voted for industrial action on November 24, 2021. It has been noted, however, by longtime stevedore Guy Neal that there was unwillingness on the part of the stevedores to engage in industrial action immediately, since such a move would have been disruptive to the heightened commerce (as well as the customary receipt by Belizeans of items from abroad) during the Christmas season.
Hyde said that at that point, the members, although they had already voted for industrial action, requested yet another meeting with the Prime Minister in an effort to seek his intervention.
“We met with the Prime Minister and we informed him of the vote for industrial action. We informed him about the proposal that was made to us, and that the proposal included a condition that we should reduce the number of gangs; we asked him to intervene. The PM met with the receivership’s management, and then met with us a week later and informed us that their position remained the same,” Hyde said.
The CWU is not accepting the proposal from the PBL or the fact that they are unwilling to agree to a sugar compensation package. For the stevedores, receiving this compensation for the earnings lost as a result of the relocation of the sugar-loading operations to the Big Creek port, despite the presence of a memorandum that should have prevented this, is a primary issue and one that cannot be swept under the rug.
“What we would hope for is that there comes a point where they accept that you can’t just simply say ‘get away with unu desire fi have some remedy fi the fact that sugar gone down south’. We have to move from there, so we di put the ball pan the court and we di say to the state, do the work,” Hyde said.
He said that this option to shut down the port, contrary to what is being portrayed in some quarters, is not an easy one for the stevedores, who are suffering loss of earnings as a result, and putting their livelihood at risk in order to get key decision-makers to seriously respond to their calls for fairness. In fact, he said that those workers are more focused on, and desirous of, continued generation of income.
“All we want is for the people out there to understand that we never run down this. We never run this down. We run down the big people inna the country, we run down trying to find solutions, we run down meetings, we run down negotiations—we show up da every single one, we nuh run down shutdown,” Hyde stated, in an effort to make it clear that the stevedores are not seeking to cause financial harm to the public.
On Monday, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) released a statement urging the parties to resolve the issue using the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal, and highlighted a number of negative impacts that could result from the standoff at the port. President of BCCI, Marissa Longsworth, said that at least 700 containers full of supplies will not be cleared this week if the issue continues. This, she said, will include “essential supplies, medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, inputs for those businesses here that create goods for the local market, and the export market.” The BCCI further noted that some exporters have also been reporting that containers with their items are stuck at the port amid the stand-off. This could prevent them from meeting their delivery obligations, and ultimately affect our foreign exchange earnings, said BCCI.
The comments made by the BCCI have led to a portrayal of the stevedores, following a standoff of just a few days, as the cause of high prices that have been plaguing the Belizean public for over a year. Hyde noted that this was a primary reason for their decision to directly address Belizeans.
He remarked, “Now da we wahn blame fi inflation! Stevedores wahn responsible for inflation? Da stevedores [responsible] fi the price of gas? Da stevedores responsible for how the tax structure deh pahn gas? Da stevedores responsible fi that fact that they can’t find truckers, they can’t find containers globally? But quickly, oh, da stevedores responsible for the gouging weh di go on inna shops.”
He then called out the BCCI, which so readily sounded alarm about a standoff that has so far lasted just a few days, for being noticeably silent about alleged “price-gouging” that has been taking place in stores for almost two years—with prices of some items at times almost doubling over the course of a week. At best, it could be seen as inconsistency on the BCCI’s part. Hyde went on to ask what the BCCI, which has been so vocal and visible over the past week, had done to condemn such gouging. “But quickly, oh da stevedores responsible for the gouging weh di go on inna shops. BCCI had anything fi say about the gouging? BCCI say [anything] about the gouging? BCCI come pan the radio and fight down that fact that when unu go da wahn store, overnight ih gone from 2 dollars to 4 dollars? BCCI nuh say a damn thing about that! But now, stevedores fi blame … we come fight against that, people …, “ Hyde exclaimed.
He explained, “We come yah fi say we inna wahn forced marriage from 2003, 2004—weh part yo da say da wahn shotgun marriage. Weh part it’s built on no love, and every two years da this, da nuh because stevedores bad—privatization fail! This thing lock up inna wahn receivership right now. Fi nearly 12 years, this da weh fi we members di deal; and every time we have to stand, they make it seem like, bwuay, stevedores di manufacture wahn issue, di manufacture problem, di manufacture shutdown.”
He added, “We are here to face anybody right now and answer them as best we can, so that you, you out there di listen, know that we nuh wahn hurry come up, fi come shut down no port. We nuh run down conflict; our member run down money, our members run down the hustle. They run down work, our member run down container ship.”
“Man deh out deh di dog see if somebody nuh show up so they could get a chance,” he pointed out.
“Dat da weh they into. They nuh into shutdown, they nuh into have to face BDF di look fi move containers. They nuh into man di tell them right now, ‘bwuay, all unu ship gweyn da Big Creek’. Just imagine that. You best believe all our members have been told that, so the stance weh they di tek right now, just imagine what it takes for them to take that,” he said.
The CWU’s call is for the Government of Belize to do its part to resolve this situation. “We are at an extremely bad spot; our membership feels cornered. We are being told all manner of things. We believe that its duty, we believe that it’s a responsibility, not just because of the Constitution, but because this is not just your everyday company having problems with its workers. This is a company under a receivership that exists because, it only exists as a private company because of a decision made by the Government of Belize; and whether it happen 50 years ago, 30 years ago, in this case, it happen 20 years ago, does not unhitch you from the responsibility of that action,” Hyde said.
Today, Hyde informed the media that the union was presented a verbal proposal re the sugar redundancy package, and that they met with the Essential Services Tribunal who handed down a synopsis of their rulings following the rebuttal submission from the parties. Hyde outlined that the tribunal made a ruling on the matter of primary substitutes, and they were to be confirmed to their respective gangs. Hyde said the tribunal ruled that the parties should negotiate the redundancy package based on their prior agreement, but the union can’t act because they have nothing in writing, and they “don’t know what the position of the employer is on these rulings.”
A meeting was held this afternoon between the members of the CWU, Minister Chebat, and PBL. We will continue to follow.