The Christian Workers Union has written a letter to the Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister and Minister of Labor, on behalf of the stevedores at the Port of Belize. That letter stated that the Port of Belize is being given 21 days notice of industrial action against the Port of Belize. After an impromptu strike in December 2015, a piece of legislation was passed that included stevedoring as an essential service, also prohibiting dockhands from going on strike without prior notice and it is with that that the impasse was brought against the Port.
Port of Belize and the stevedores have been at odds for quite some time but have now come to a head when the Port of Belize refused to discuss anything other than hours of work. Those hours currently stand at 18, 3 hours above the legally allowed hours of work.
According to the Port of Belize, these disagreements, which have existed since 2012, have not come to a resolution because over that period, the CWU has changed 4 presidents. CEO of the Port of Belize, Arturo Vasquez, elaborated. “It goes back to 2012, and as you know, now that we are 6 years into this, we have actually changed or negotiated with 4 different presidents for the CWU and that has created quite a bit of waste, loss of time. It’s not only a loss of time but the continuity as well, because whenever you get involved with a new leadership they are not around to see what you have negotiated before. So that’s a significant problem for us. We are now starting with a new president that certainly hasn’t been around to see what we have actually done for the stevedores and what is it that we have accomplished up to this day. The item that we are now negotiating which we have been negotiating from before is the hours of work. That is what has us where we are right now and it’s simple, the hours of work based on legal advice we have gotten, and also from the Labor Department, is that currently the stevedores are working outside of the Labor Law. According to Vasquez, at the Port of Belize, the labor law mandates that there be a minimum of 9 hours of down time for persons working within a 24 hour period.
Vasquez says that the next step in regards to that impasse is to introduce a mediator. “From our point of view we have recognized that we are at an impasse, we have notified them that yes we are in an impasse, and we have also said to them, ‘let us take the steps now, according to our negotiating framework, to get rid of this impasse,’ and that means introducing a mediator. According to the act the minister has the option to consider and to say to us you apparently have an internal process that you can follow to clear your impasse. In relation to that impasse, the minute we went into an impasse we wrote CWU telling them, ‘guys, we are at an impasse and based on our negotiating framework, we now need to agree on a mediator.”
Also in agreement of the necessity of a mediator is Senator Dr. Carla Barnett who says that she and the Ministry of Labor are ready to step in.
The stevedores represent an integral part of the port’s function and their strike would negatively affect the economy and Vasquez says that they have had ample warning and time to implement a response to the strike. “In a way but we have already implemented the system since Monday. We have already implemented the system. So, we are also preparing ourselves in the event that there is a 21 day strike because at least this time you know beforehand. So, we are already doing it. From a security aspect, from an operations point of view, we are already doing it. Because everybody knows what the strike will cost and if you are at a strike then you haven’t really settled anything. I think the whole idea here is, first of all, to settle the dispute first, the best way possible. That is the whole idea. The 21 day notice, the strike, will not settle a dispute.”
