Leonora Flowers – President, CWU
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Feb. 3, 2025
On Friday, January 31, the Christian Workers Union (CWU) issued Port of Belize Ltd. (PBL) a notice of strike action on behalf of its stevedore members who number close to 150. If industrial action is not averted, it would mean that activities at the Government-owned facility would be disrupted beginning on Friday, February 21.
In the letter, CWU states, “Following the surprise Government of Belize acquisition of the Port, on behalf of our Stevedore Members, CWU compromised and made significant sacrifices to resolve legacy differences with the former owner and to turn the page. Subsequently, CWU and Stevedores have engaged in good-faith negotiations for a successor Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). CWU and Stevedores have made reasonable proposals for win-win outcomes. However, this week, hopes were dashed for such outcomes.”
CWU president Leonora Flowers explained to Amandala today that they started negotiating a new CBA in June of 2024, and that PBL CEO, Arturo Vasquez asked that they delay discussions on the financial aspects of the document. According to Flowers, when they got to those aspects, there was an impasse, at which time the Board’s input was sought. She shared that the response brought back from the Board was that they, too, were not agreeable to the increases sought. The Union writes that it is hopeful that cooler heads will prevail, and they can end up with a CBA “that adequately reflects the essential role of our Stevedore-Members play in the economy of the Jewel.” Each CBA is to last three years, and if that time expires without agreement on a new one, the old one rolls over. The last agreement was signed on August 2, 2020.
The Union is seeking an increase of a dollar on the hourly rates paid to the stevedores; whereas PBL, according to Flowers, is only offering an increase of 30 cents per year for three years (2025, 2026, 2027). The stevedores consider it a paltry sum. We were also told that for years, there have been no increases on container rates, retirement savings, and bonus payments for the stevedores. The only increase considered acceptable by the dock workers is meal allowance that would go from $12 to $15.
The Union continues to ask PBL to provide audited financials, but says that it has yet to receive them.
We asked Flowers if they are leveraging the fact that early elections are expected, but she said that they are at this juncture because of the manner in which discussions progressed. She remarked, “On the contrary, if they wanted to avoid us getting close to election come January, we could have gotten the financials out of the way from way before.”
She told us that they have not formally sought to get Prime Minister John Briceño to intervene.
Now that the 21-days strike action notice has been invoked, it is expected that labour authorities would intervene in hopes of averting any disruption at the port. Flowers told us that they have not yet heard back from the Ministry of Labour regarding their notice letter.