Still No Agreement between CWU and Port of Belize Ltd.

Contrary to a report that has been circulating that stevedores at the Port of Belize Limited are on a strike, this evening, the President of the Christian Workers Union informed our newsroom that there is no immediate plan to strike. Flowers shared that there was police presence at the P.B.L. compound and that they had removed a gang that was there. The police presence follows a press conference that the Christian Workers Union today at which it reported that a series of negotiations have brought about no change. Those negotiations were between the C.W.U. and the interim board of Port of Belize Limited towards a settlement over compensation for over thirty stevedores who say they were wrongly terminated. Initially, the C.W.U. was entertaining a compensation package of one point five million dollars for the employees, but the union had second thoughts and eventually rejected the offer. Today, the C.W.U. called a press conference to vent its discontent after the meetings that broke down. At the heart of the discussions is the Ministry of Labour, whose intervention has been to assist the two sides to reach some middle ground in their dispute.  News Five’s Marion Ali reports.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

A proposal put forward by the interim board of the Port of Belize on February fifteenth was roundly rejected by the Christian Workers Union.  This was on the grounds that the proposals to bring both sides to an agreement over compensation for thirty-five stevedores were terminated union did not meet the standards that the union had hoped for. Today, the President of the CWU, Leonora Flowers said they tried to compromise with some of the proposals, but in the end, it did not pay off.

 

Leonora Flowers, President, Christian Workers Union

“They made an offer to us that day, and that offer was for a change in gang size, and several other things coming directly from the proposal. Although it touched on gang size, we said we will take it to our members. We will take it to the attorney. We went to the attorney and we asked her guidance and we instructed her to go ahead and make this, and this for us in a settlement deed or a settlement agreement. When we went to the stevedores, although there was a little bit of a reluctance to give up a member from the gang, in the end, the stevedores membership said, okay, we’ll go with that. It was a reluctant decision, but we wanted to move the negotiations forward to get the sugar money discussion out of the way. Unfortunately, after three days, we went back to the team for the government, and after three days, we could not come to an understanding or any mutual grounds, none of that was able to strike.”

 

Flowers said that the CWU informed PBL on Saturday of its position and also that it will not continue with dialogue because the union thought that PBL attempted to strip away terms and conditions that are in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

 

 

 

Leonora Flowers

“We will not discuss the CBA and its terms. The CBA for us is a sacred document. We signed it and we will abide by that until we go to the CBA negotiations. Needless to say they don’t agree with us. They say we were already agreed, which we were not. I say we’re not agreed until we’re agreed, until we sign a document. We never agreed, we were disagreed to see if it was palatable. We were being asked to reduce the gang from 14 to 13 members. When we sat in the same room, the stevedores said, but we have gangs, we have 17 members, so what happens then? The Port of Belize tried to do that. So if we can’t sit at the table and dialogue with you and negotiate with you in good faith, if we feel that we’re being taken advantage of, it is time to call a halt and that is what we have done.”

 

Chief Union Representative for the stevedores, Marlon Middleton says the stevedores feel as if though their worth has been trivialized.

 

Marlon Middleton, Chief Union Representative, Stevedores

“Our members originally had asked us to negotiate a payment of $4.9 million. The other guy, I won’t call any name, the other guy got his fair share and more – $196 million, $45 million of which was payable up front. Now you are telling us that you cannot give us $4.9 million. You broke us down to $1.6. We were willing to accept it. And then now you are telling us that we have to abide and go with what PBL is saying. You are the boss now of PBL, so then be, the boss.”

 

Meanwhile, Flowers said the position that the board took on behalf of the government was offensive, but the CWU is willing to resume negotiations at anytime.

 

Leonora Flowers

“The Government of Belize is the largest stakeholder in the Port of Belize, so this offer came from the Government of Belize. They can say otherwise. It came from the Government of Belize to say they will override whatever exists in our CBA. I have never seen overriding a document that offended me so much, and it offended our team. And that was one of the issues that brought us to full stop. We are prepared to commence the negotiation of the new CBA tomorrow.  If you are ready, we are ready tomorrow. Let’s not piece meal this. Let’s not cause destruction on our CBA. We can discuss the CBA immediately.”

 

News Five attempted to get a comment from the Ministry of Labour on this matter, but our efforts were futile. Marion Ali for News Five.

Meanwhile, the C.W.U. and the Citrus Products of Belize Limited (CPBL) have signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement that covers workers employed by CPBL factory and machine shop. The C.B.A. is valid for a period of four years, from 2021 to 2025, provided that no other union obtains representational rights during this time. The main goal of this agreement is to maintain and enhance the positive working relationship between CPBL and C.W.U. It places significant emphasis on safeguarding the welfare and interests of CPBL’s staff.