Photo: Leonora Flowers – President, Christian Workers Union (CWU)
Stevedores have yet to access $400,000+ frozen ex-gratia payment
BELIZE CITY, Wed. Jan. 3, 2024
The Briceño Administration has confirmed the Government’s buyover of the Port of Belize (PBL) from Ashcroft Alliance company, Waterloo Investment Holdings Limited on December 7, 2023. At the time of the announcement of the purchase, the Christian Workers Union (CWU), which represents the workers on the waterfront (stevedores), had railed that they had not been consulted about the move. Nonetheless, they expressed relief that with the buyback, the litigation that Waterloo had brought against the CWU and some stevedores would no longer continue. However, they ensured that the message was clear that they wanted justice for stevedores and, currently, that would be achieved with the negotiation of a long-outstanding sugar redundancy payment to compensate stevedores for lost earnings resulting from the transfer of sugar-loading operations to the port at Big Creek. As we have been reporting, the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal directed in an oral decision in January of 2022 that such negotiations for a payment be carried out.
Once the formalities of the takeover were finalized, an interim board was appointed for PBL. The announcement of the appointees was made on December 11. Today, after a members meeting that the CWU leadership held to provide an update to members at the location they (the stevedores) had chosen — outside of the PBL compound—CWU president Leonora Flowers told Amandala that the interim board has in fact reached out to them to set a date for a meeting to discuss the sugar redundancy payment. The date is Friday, February 12. This was communicated to the union after the board’s inaugural meeting, which took place before the Christmas holidays.
Leading PBL as CEO is no other than Arturo “Tux” Vasquez, who had been CEO during the receivership/Waterloo ownership of the port. When we asked Flowers if the stevedores have decided that they will work with a PBL led by Vasquez, she said, “I believe, yes, because it was the same CEO at the time who signed off on the March 6th agreement in 2020. And so, who better to sit across from at a table to say ‘You signed off on the March 6th agreement in 2020 … so, we’re back before you again to discuss that award.’” As we have reported, the union is requesting a payment of $4.9 million.
As it relates to Elena Smith, who is the labour representative on the interim board, the union had initially expressed dissatisfaction that they were not consulted about the selection. However, today, Flowers said they will also work with Smith, who has already reached out to them and, according to Flowers, indicated “her full support for our issues as she had done before. So, we have every confidence that she will support us. We are going to be behind her, so we anticipate that that support is going to be positive.”
As to their expectations on the length of time that the interim board should remain in place at PBL, Flowers said they have no idea, but noted that she had asked the Prime Minister what is an interim board, because she has never heard of such a thing in all her years of work. She says they hope it won’t be too long.
Another matter on which the union leadership provided an update today is the remaining ex-gratia payment that was frozen due to litigation initiated by Waterloo when the Government made the payment of $1.5 million to the CWU to disburse to stevedores. Flowers says the balance that has still not reached the hands of some stevedores is $473,000. It was expected that the stevedores would have had their money by Christmas 2023. She complained that, in particular, the National Bank is requiring that they pay fees for statements and check leaves even though the money was already deposited. She called that “unholy” and “disgusting”. She shared that they are being charged $30 per hour for research.