BELIZE CITY, Sun. Feb. 6, 2022– After eight days of industrial action, the most recent standoff between the Christian Workers Union (CWU) and the Port of Belize Ltd. has been temporarily resolved with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the union and the Government of Belize. The MOU, signed on February 3, outlines several conditions to be met by both parties, including—and most notably—the Government’s agreement to make a payment of 1.5 million Belize dollars to the CWU as compensation to the stevedores, who, according to Hyde, have lost an estimated $30 million in future earnings and retirement benefits due to the GoB-sanctioned transfer of sugar-loading operations to the Big Creek Port. This written agreement followed the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal’s issuance of directives to the Port of Belize Limited (PBL), which included instructions that the receivership negotiate with the stevedores on a sugar redundancy package and re-designate the status of some stevedores so that they are able to access certain employment benefits. One day after that ruling by the tribunal on Friday, January 28, the CWU stevedores returned to work—an act of good faith that hinges on the hope that PBL will follow through on what it has been instructed to do.
On the other hand, the 1.5 million dollar payment to be issued by the government on or before February 28, is the Government’s compensation to the stevedores for the hardships that they have suffered since the port’s privatization. In comparison to the losses suffered by the stevedores due to a series of decisions that have resulted in the decimation of their earnings and the weakening of their job security, the settlement sum, which, when shared among more than a hundred stevedores, will amount to about $10,000 per stevedore, is being seen by some as just a token. Hyde had expressed his hope that it is a gesture that indicates GoB’s recognition of the harm caused to this group of workers by a series of decisions it has made. But, although the Government has not explicitly taken responsibility for the plight of the stevedores, the MOU does acknowledge that their struggles have been a direct result of the privatization of PBL.
The agreement, signed by the president of the CWU, Evan “Mose” Hyde; the Minister of Public Utilities, Energy and Logistics, Hon. Michel Chebat, and the chairman of the Belize Port Authority, Major Lloyd Jones, outlined the terms on which the CWU has agreed to accept the payment, including the immediate return of the stevedores to work.
President of the Christian Workers Union, Evan “Mose” Hyde, when interviewed by reporters following the signing of the MOU, said, “The essence of the agreement is that the Government, acknowledging that privatization has had an impact on our members, offered an ex-gratia payment initially, and we countered, with due respect, to the offer that if we were going to have some sort of spirit of reconciliation, then we wanted it to be a very encompassing agreement.”
“We understood that one of the issues at the time was that our members were not at work. Our members went back to work on Friday. But the matter of Government’s offer was still not resolved. We countered by widening the scope of the MOU. Besides being offered a financial sum, which we have now accepted at a mil and a half—one million five hundred thousand—we also asked for the matter of our members who were teargassed and rubber-bulleted, who have initiated processes for claims, and who have medical certification of injuries that they received that day, for there to be a commitment to settle,” he added.
Under the MOU, the Government of Belize has agreed to begin negotiations regarding compensation to all the stevedores who were injured during their peaceful protest on July 22, 2020, by the Belize Police Department. It was, in Hyde’s words, a “grotesque act”, when unarmed stevedores were fired upon with rubber bullets and tear-gassed by GSU officers while they were protesting against the unceremonious firing of PBL employees via WhatsApp. It is still uncertain which person or entity, at the highest levels, had called for such force to be used, since it is being said that the deployment of the officers was not GoB-sanctioned. The scenes of the incident, and of bloodied, injured workers, which were later seen on video were deeply disturbing, and according to the union president, there is at least one of the eleven union members who were injured who now has physical impairments and is only able to do his work at PBL through the assistance of fellow stevedores.
The Memorandum signed by the CWU further specifies that the Government of Belize is to amend the Belize Social Security Act, which contains a legislative loophole that places the stevedores at a disadvantage (due to the uneven distribution of their work hours) and has long been a concern of theirs. Though it was not outlined in the MOU, Hyde also informed the media that the Ministry of Natural Resources has agreed to look into the availability of lands for the workers, many of whom do not have land of their own. He made reference to one stevedore who over the years had submitted applications to the Lands Department in an effort to obtain a piece of land 16 times—to no avail.
And while the 1.5 million dollars from GOB is an attempt at reconciliation, said Hyde, it is still merely “ointment on an amputated leg” and does not cover what the CWU members have lost. In addition to the two decades of struggle and turmoil that the stevedores have faced under a privatized PBL, the workers have, as previously mentioned, also seen their salaries cut in half as a result of sugar-loading operations being transferred from the Belize City Port to Big Creek Port in Independence Village. Back in 2006, the Government signed an MOU agreeing that the loading of dry goods, sugar included, would not be transferred from PBL to Big Creek due to the significant financial impact that it would have had. Despite this, the Government of Belize still gave Belize Sugar Industries (BSI/ASR) the green light to move its operations down south.
“I think it’s important to take this opportunity to say that stevedores have already; we describe it as they’ve lost a financial leg,” Hyde said. “When we do the math, our members have lost out on future earnings. When we put together direct earnings and then retirement benefits, we’re looking at near 30 million dollars,” he said.
But despite the payment being, in the context of how much has been lost by the stevedores, a relative drop in the bucket, Hyde commented that the gesture is still significant to the union members, especially because they are aware that the 1.5 million is “the people’s money. It’s not the employer’s money” and because the government has at least acknowledged the workers’ plight.
After Friday’s House of Representatives meeting, Prime Minister Hon. John Briceño spoke to local media on the matter. During the interview, he said that many of the issues brought up by the Christian Workers Union should have been addressed years ago.
“We believe it’s best to just put this to an end. It is something that needs to be corrected. And we felt that instead of having this fester and continue every now and again to flare up—because at the end of the day when these things happen, it costs everyone, including the consumers—as a responsible government we said, you know, let us deal with it once and for all,” he remarked.
The PM further noted that the CWU has agreed to present a detailed account of how the $1.5 million payout from GoB will have been disbursed, including receipts, names, and social security numbers, within 90 days. He also noted that, although some matters have been, in his view, settled, one of the issues to be further discussed is the working hours of the stevedores and the continuous offloading of the ships.
“On the way that they [the stevedores] offload the ships, the practice has been—and this is a practice that has been going on for decades and it’s difficult to break a practice—that one group of workers, one gang of stevedores, would offload a ship and when they get tired they go home and rest and come back to finish that ship. Maybe 20, 30 years ago that was okay, but in today’s time when you have to get everything moving and you’re working in an almost 24/7 economy, you can’t leave a ship idle there until that group of workers can come back to work,” he said. A part of the agreement, said the PM, is that now while one gang of stevedores rests, another will come to the port to finish the offloading.
In regards to the relationship between the stevedores and the Port of Belize Limited going forward, CWU president “Mose” Hyde said that achieving peace and stability is their end goal. “With this MOU, I believe what it has done is to create a bit of space for us to find the flexibility to create that stability,” he said.
Within that space, there are still many pressing matters that must still be addressed, including the stevedores’ hours of work, the sugar redundancy package, and several other issues. Hyde said that the members of the union have tried to avoid shutdowns and that it is something they do not want and to which they have resorted only as a last resort.
“Obviously, it’s a dysfunctional, distrustful, toxic relationship, but we still have to find a way to exist, where what it is we provide at the port is attractive to the people we both depend upon to make the food,” said Hyde. He also called on those who were quick to criticize the actions of the CWU to recognize their efforts in reaching an agreement and to encourage PBL to meet them halfway. On many occasions, the union has struggled to get PBL to dialogue with them regarding matters that affect the livelihoods of the stevedores and, by extension, over a hundred families on the Southside of Belize City. He pointed out that it is important that those entities which so readily blamed the stevedores for the shutdown, hold the Port of Belize Ltd. accountable and make an effort to ensure that it fulfills its commitments and does what it has said it will do.
“These are hardworking, real human beings that represent a historical value to the community around them. And that value has been taken down. And all we’re trying to do now—all we’re left to do—is to preserve what is there,” he noted.
“And we need everybody. We need the Government. We need the stakeholders, the Chamber, we need everybody to understand, listen. It is in our interest, not just stevedores’ interest, it is in all our interest, it is in the community’s interest, it’s in Belize’s interest that what’s left there, that one last leg that is there for stevedores remains. You cannot destroy that. And we are here saying to you, we are committed to doing our part. Then you’ve got to do your part too,” he went on to say.
Hyde also stressed that the highest priority for the Government of Belize should be creating an environment at the Port of Belize Ltd. that works for all parties and making an effort to recognize the economic value that the stevedores’ earnings bring to the Southside.