Photo: Stevedores protesting outside PBL compound on March 4, 2020

PBL intransigent; stevedores vote/CWU gives Minister of Labour 21 days’ notice of industrial action

BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 12, 2023

The situation at the waterfront in Belize City has escalated. On Friday, May 26, unionized stevedores voted almost unanimously in favour of industrial action. As required by the Settlement of Disputes in Essential Services Act, they must first notify the Minister responsible for Labour of their intention. If the Minister, within 21 days, has not referred the dispute for settlement, the stevedores can proceed with industrial action. That notice from their bargaining agent, the Christian Workers Union (CWU) was formally issued to Minister of Labour, Hon. Oscar Requeña in a letter dated Friday, June 9, 2023. Based on that date, the 21 days would expire on June 30. The letter was copied to Prime Minister John Briceño and to Ted Peralta, the CEO of Port of Belize Ltd. (PBL), which employs the estimated 150 stevedores.

In the brief communication, CWU General Secretary Floyd Neal notified Minister Requeña that “Despite various attempts, including with the involvement of your Ministry, there remains a live trade dispute between CWU and PBL. This dispute stems from PBL’s refusal to abide by the Award of the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal (ESAT) directing that ‘the parties forthwith engage in negotiations to determine the terms of payment under the 6th March, 2020 agreement.’ [appearing at Paragraph 28 on Page 7 of Award of the Tribunal handed down on 27th January, 2022].”

PBL reacted almost immediately, stating, “On the heels of an unfavourable ruling issued by the High Court of Belize on Monday, 29th May 2023 which provided that the CWU’s right to strike is subject to the CWU’s obligations to comply with the procedures set out in law, the Christian Workers Union (‘CWU’) have on the 9th day of June, 2023 served the Minister of Labour and the Port of Belize Ltd. (‘PBL’) with yet another unreasonably issued 21-day notice to engage in industrial action.”

PBL subsequently asserted that the CWU’s stance is based on what the company is suggesting is an “entirely misconceived interpretation” of the ESAT’s ruling. The company then reiterated its long-held position that the ESAT did not award stevedores redundancy payments for the move of bulk sugar loading/unloading operations to the Port of Big Creek. Furthermore, said PBL, the company has not engaged the statutory procedure of redundancy under the Labour Act because no stevedores were made redundant.

PBL continued by claiming that it has “suffered significant losses” due to the transfer of the sugar industry’s unloading/loading operations to the Port of Big Creek, but it went on to place the blame for the Belize Sugar Industries Limited’s decision to move its bulk sugar operations to the Port of Big Creek entirely on the stevedores and the “unreliable manner” in which they discharged their duties—not acknowledging its failure to make necessary upgrades to the port or its provocative actions as an employer that have led to acts of resistance or industrial action by the stevedores. PBL then accused CWU of holding “the entire economy at ransom as goods remain at a standstill at PBL causing substantial losses to producers, importers and exporters of goods who rely on the functionality of PBL.”

In a brief response to PBL’s release, thr CWU declared that it served the required 21-day notice of intention to proceed with industrial action according to applicable law. It again accused PBL of issuing a wilfully misleading release and then stated, by way of setting the record straight, that the March 6, 2020 Agreement signed with the then Labour Minister, PBL and CWU “anticipated payment to Stevedores for income loss in the event the export of raw sugar left the Belize City Harbor, as happened in July, 2021. There is absolutely nothing unreasonable about Stevedores’ legitimate expectation to be compensated for the income they lost when sugar went South. A key consideration for the ASR/BSI decision to head to the Port of Big Creek was PBL’s refusal to make any meaningful investment to improve the Port Loyola Compound. That refusal contributed to the very ‘inefficiency and unreliability’ PBL now tries to transfer onto Stevedores. CWU and Stevedores reject outrightly PBL’s attempt to frame the 21-Days’ Notice as any ‘ransoming’. PBL must abide by the Agreement signed and the ESAT Award.”

The CWU said it stands ready to engage in good-faith negotiations with the company while PBL said it looked forward to the engagement of the Ministry of Labour but said it found it necessary to “remind the ministry of the need for it to act impartially.” Up to this morning, the Union had not heard from the Minister of Labour. Amandala reached out to Minister Requeña for comment but he has not responded.
   
Prime Minister John Briceño today told Amandala, “They are exercising their constitutional rights. But I do think the Minister of Labor needs to determine whether there is a ‘live trade dispute’.” For its part, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has stated that as Belize’s largest employer and business membership organization, it is “deeply concerned that the impact on the operations at the Port of Belize may have far-reaching effects on exports, inputs for production, and the final price of consumer goods. These undesired effects may further exacerbate the difficulties Belizean businesses and consumers face.” It added that “As the Employer’s representative for the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Belize, the BCCI subscribes to the ILO’s principles on resolving labour disputes through conciliation, mediation, and dialogue.” The Chamber is therefore urging the parties to actively dialogue to “bring any existing dispute to a swift conclusion.”

No comments were made by the BCCI on the tariff hike that PBL had reportedly asked the stevedores to support and the impact such tariff increases would have on “inputs for production and the final price of consumer goods”. Notably, when the stevedores had carried out industrial action previously, the BCCI had urged the parties to have the matter settled by the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal, but little has been said by the Chamber about the apparent refusal of PBL to comply with the ruling by negotiating with the stevedores to arrive at a redundancy payment agreement.