C.W.U. Walks Out of Tribunal

In an update to a story we have been following, the Christian Workers Union walked out of a Labor Tribunal meeting today.  The C.W.U. and the Stevedores Negotiating Team had requested that the National Trade Union Congress of Belize withdraw its participation in the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal Meeting scheduled for today.  The stevedores say their request to N.T.U.C.B. was made as a direct response to the Ministry of Labor’s formal letter sent to C.W.U. on August twenty-fourth, 2021.  In that letter, the Labor Minister declined to have the ministry comply with its agreement made on July twenty-first, 2021.  But the C.W.U. feels that when the N.T.U.C.B.’s representative recused himself, the Tribunal lost its required quorum and so with the quorum lost, the C.W.U. team proceeded to walk out of the Tribunal Meeting.  C.W.U. says the Labor Ministry had agreed to mediate the negotiations between P.B.L. and the Union. One of the key points of that agreement was the matter of compensation to stevedores for lost earnings as a result of the decision of A.S.R./B.S.I. to relocate its raw sugar export point to the Big Creek Port.