Waterfront workers walk out over stalled negotiations; Port paralyzed

Published by BBNTEAM at March 12, 2024

Posted: Tuesday, March 12, 2024. 11:02 am CST.

By Aaron Humes: Despite assurances that the Port of Belize continues to operate, there are reports that cargo ships that have been making calls to Belize since last week have been unable to unload at the Port.

Last week Tuesday, stevedores walked off the job. Their union, the Christian Workers Union (CWU), had met with the Prime Minister to negotiate a redundancy payment. Up to Friday, things seemed encouraging, but members ultimately rejected the proposals.

Leonora Flowers, CWU President, explained why: “Unfortunately, the proposal that was given to us on 15 February did not meet the standards that we would have wanted it to meet and so we rejected it outrightly everything in the proposal we rejected there were some discussions, I would say off the record, behind-the-scenes, whichever term you want to use, and so we ended up going to a meeting with the Prime Minister and several of his Belize City based members, Ministers of Government. They made an offer to us that day, and that offer was for the change in gang size and several other things coming directly from the proposal.”

After securing a legal review and settlement agreement to propose to the Government with reluctant majority support, talks failed to advance to the stevedores’ satisfaction, said Flowers: “Unfortunately after three days, we went back to the team for the government and after three days we could not come to an understanding of any mutual ground. None of that was able to strike. And so, on Saturday last week, we informed the PBL that our position is that we will not be able to continue to dialogue with them as their attempt was to strip away terms and conditions that we have in our CBA. So, the end is we have rejected what they have offered. We have told them point-blank 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.”

For its part, the Port of Belize issued its side of the story in a 3-page, 1,100-word release.

First, they stress that there has been no award of compensation to stevedores made by the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal. Their proposed redundancy package was for $2.55 million – $1.05 million proposed by PBL for retirement benefits and a smaller compensation sum for hypothetical “Loss of Earnings” and a further $1.5 million from the Government. They say the CWU had agreed to accept the offer and make the changes to the number of gang members from 14 to 13.

PBL says it stands ready to resume negotiations in good faith.

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