Email

Print

That's revenue going down the drain for Port of Belize, and it forced a crisis resolution meeting at 10 this morning at Port of Belize. The first round finished two hours later and 7news was there.

Jules Vasquez reporting
Coming out of the meeting at noon, McFoy said that no conclusion had been reached:

Jules Vasquez
"What comes out of the meeting?"

James McFoy - General Secretary, CWU
"Nothing, to be honest it's nothing. We went through and we gave some conditions or proposals again and we said that we are not dealing with all the demands. All we could be satisfied at this point in time is let the workers get their pay on a daily base and then forget about the food, then the other things in demand we will discuss when we start negotiation."

And, until then - they were ready to continue leveraging the sugar ship that's in port against their demands:

James McFoy - General Secretary, CWU
"It's a lose lose situation. The storage will be going through expenses and the ship will be out there; no work. Revenue for the country will be on a hold too. Port will be losing money also. The workers will not be paid, so they will be losing too. That ship can't stay out there for too long losing money. Somebody would have to buckle."

Jules Vasquez
"How much longer do you think it would be Mr. McFoy?"

James McFoy - General Secretary, CWU
"Good question."

Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long - right after our interview - which was a ten minutes after they had left the office, they were called back in - and went right back for a lunchtime negotiation session.

That came out at 2:20 - after another two hours of negotiation:

James McFoy - General Secretary, CWU
"We finally got to an agreement. We sign a document just a while ago."

That is this document - a six point undertaking signed by both parties - the main point being that….:

James McFoy - General Secretary, CWU
"We finally got to the point where we agree that they will pay on a day basis every time they come off their shift."

Deon Pitter - Stevedore
"We are satisfied with the answer that we went around the table and negotiate with. That is what we want. We are satisfied that we can wait two weeks for them to put the system in place whereby we get our pay after every shift."

Raymond Rivers, Stevedore
"I am satisfied with the outcome from the meeting today. I want them to remember that we have a sugar boat that is out there which will be out there for one month, so if they do or say the wrong thing and don't live up to their word it will be right back where we were on go slow."

"We are not worrying about the little hundred that we make, but it is they that have to worry about the thousands that they lose every hour or whatever."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you consider this having worth the work stoppage?"

James McFoy - General Secretary, CWU
"Yea, it is definitely and surely worth it because we manage to get them around the table. We manage to explain to them that we are serious and if things do not work to our satisfaction then we will again bring it to their attention anyway we can by hurting them this way by slowing down the work."

But for now the slow down is over - and things return to normal

James McFoy - General Secretary, CWU
"At 6pm the gang will be going out there to resume working."

And both sides return to the negotiating table next week to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement:

Raymond Rivers, Stevedore
"I say by July 4th when the declaration of Independence was sign I would want to sign our agreement."

Deon Pitter - Stevedore
"The vibes that we have created in there - I think the process will be very short. The negotiation won't be long for us to come to a collective bargain agreement."