PM Brings Out Senior Ministers to Meet with CWU and Stevedores  

Present at this afternoon’s meeting was Deputy Mayor Cordel Hyde, Port Minister Michel Chebat and Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler.  There on behalf of the Port of Belize Limited was Interim Chairman Doctor Gilbert Canton and C.E.O. Arturo “Tux” Vasquez.  For her part, C.W.U. President Leonora Flowers congratulated the prime minister for agreeing to another ex-gratia payment.

 

Leonora Flowers, President, Christian Workers Union

“I just want to say thanks to the PM for having us here and his ministers, his team.  Thanks for the new offer and the way it has been set out.  We believe it’s palatable for our members.  In fact, we were given certain instructions before we arrived for this meeting and we have found that they met with our requirement, so our members will be pleased with the response that we are taking back to them.  Yes, indeed. We are going to sit with our attorney and get the document drafted, forwarded to the other side’s attorney and so we can move from that.  One of the things that we had wanted was to commence the CBA negotiations and that has also been agreed to as soon as we’ve completed this agreement and the PM has offered another ex-gratia payment that goes to house for approval and after that we commence, as we had discussed, with within the next week our CBA which is what we really want to do on behalf of our members.”