BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 22, 2021– Yesterday, the Government of Belize informed the Port of Belize Limited (PBL) of their decision to allow ASR/BSI to move its sugar operation to the Port of Big Creek — this information was then relayed to the representatives of the Christians Workers Union (CWU) by PBL while the two entities were meeting as part of the first phase of newly resumed negotiations.
The announcement stunned and angered the representatives of the CWU, whose president, Evan “Mose” Hyde, had explained last week at a press conference that the union had no option but to initiate a go-slow by stevedores who work on the sugar barges in an effort to get the PBL to respond to their repeated requests for pressing issues to be discussed. For two consecutive weeks, that go-slow had been ongoing. The purpose of the virtual meeting which was held yesterday was to set timelines for these important negotiations to be carried out.
But before they had addressed all the matters on the agenda for the meeting, the president of the CWU, Evan “Mose” Hyde, was informed of the government’s decision, handed down by Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Utilities and Transport.
Hyde subsequently explained to local reporters, “Well, it was in that meeting that we were told by the CEO of PBL that he was contacted by the Minister of Utilities and Transport to inform him this afternoon that Government has taken a position that ASR can be about its business and go to Big Creek and they would not be utilizing the MOU in any way as it relates to that and the Minister of Labor confirmed that to us. This comes on that back of the sugar ship leaving port this morning, stranding our members who were working that, and so we did have discussions outside of the process.”
Hyde then referred to the manner in which the announcement was made. He expressed anger at the government’s issuance of an announcement to PBL without notifying the CWU, which had been requesting some type of response from the government regarding its position on an MOU that would likely be violated if ASR/BSI transferred its operation to Big Creek. “For us, that is what we feel right now, we feel humiliated that we have not been notified. There has been no, we sent a letter requesting the position of the government on the MOU. It was very insulting to get the government position from the employer in the middle of a negotiation. We are very, very deeply angry about that. We acted responsibly, we engaged,” he said.
Hyde noted that GOB’s decision to allow ASR/BSI to take its sugar loading operations to Big Creek amounts to a dismissal of the 2006 MOU signed by the Musa Administration and Toledo Enterprise Limited, which is in control of the Big Creek Port. In that MOU, it was agreed that shipping of dry goods would not be transferred to Big Creek because of the adverse financial impact such a move would have on stakeholders in Belize City. Hyde said that they expected at least a response from the government, since it was the CWU that had presented GOB with the document signed unto by the then Government of Belize on February 13, 2006.
“We don’t even have a justification right now. We don’t even know why what is the position for the dismissal of the MOU. We just know that this has happened, and that rough, cause now we are in a position where, yes, we have to be responsible and discuss a redundancy. There has been a refusal to engage on that, but simultaneously we feel that the MOU should have rendered any redundancy conversation null and void, because you cannot have a breach of your own agreement,” Hyde stated.
He then summed up what the decision implied about the Government’s position in regard to the welfare of the stevedores, as well as the upholding of legal agreements. “Essentially what we have here is that the government, as a shareholder of ASR, is making a decision to breach an agreement that the government itself has signed to try to regulate between two ports of 2006. I don’t know what legal opinion they have. I know that one that we have, so there is just this feeling that ‘we have to worry about Big Creek, we have to worry about ASR, the last on the list, stevedores, unu have to paddle unu own canoe, unu have to do without sugar, unu have to without the sugar ship remaining in harbor to finish off its job at the very least finish off what is the last ship’.” Hyde remarked.
About 160 members of the CWU will be affected by this move, with a loss of approximately $175,000 in salaries as a result of the departure of this last ship. Those workers watched the last sugar barge depart from the port, oblivious of the decision made by the government until being informed by the union’s leadership. Hyde said that he believes the government should have engaged the union directly on the matter rather than using the PBL’s CEO as a middleman of sorts.
“They [the stevedores] saw the ship leave harbor, so they wanted to know. We were unable to tell them. The only time we were able to provide answers to them is when it is then told to us by the CEO, who was contacted by the Minister responsible, so I guess leave it to the CEO to inform the union,” Hyde said.
“We wrote to them about the MOU. It wasn’t PBL. It wasn’t Mr. Lane who provided the MOU. Nobody else provided the MOU. It’s the union that brought the MOU to show them, ‘this is what you signed, brah’. Whether or not you were there in 2006, GOB, people acting as the leaders of the country at the time said, ‘we have to create a landscape that works for everybody’, and we would want to believe that included the stevedores themselves,” Hyde pointed out.
Hyde informed local reporters, however, that the union is not giving up on the MOU and has since engaged with their lawyers on the issue.
“They will have to do better than sending an indirect message to us that the MOU is not going to play any part in what happens going forwards. That is not good enough for our members. That is not good enough for us,” Hyde said.