7 News Belize

CWU Pres “Pancho” Gets 2 Months
posted (August 19, 2013)
On Friday, we showed you the meeting which the Stevedores held on Thursday night to discuss the performance of the leaders of the Christian Workers Union, Antonio Gonzalez and James McFoy.

They stevedores have been calling for the immediate resignation of Gonzalez and McFoy, which was supposed to take effect last week Friday. Well, all indications were that this call for resignation was ignored, and both men would continue to run to CWU until March 2014, when a general meeting would be called to elect a new executive.

Well, Gonzalez and McFoy called a meeting today at the Labour Office in Belize City, where the stevedores were invited along with members from the organizations under the CWU.

After almost 3 hours in that meeting; McFoy and Gonzalez granted the media an interview in which they finally responded to some of the criticisms from their membership. Here's what they told us:


James McFoy - General Secretary, CWU
"So we asked for a meeting with some of the areas' representatives and they showed up, we explained everything that took place and we saw that some of the things that they were concerned about is indeed genuine."








Antonio Gonzalez - President, CWU
"We got together and dialogued, discussed, trashed out one another and we came up that there will be an AGM (what we call a Convention) on the 26th of October. There will be financial audited statements so that it can be taken up to the convention but as I mentioned in my earlier statement; I will not be seeking any re-election."

Reporter
"You will not seek re-election because of the pressure that the Stevedores..."

Antonio Gonzalez
"I don't think so, I had a health issue from earlier, it's just a personal thing. My wife is now suffering from a terminal illness."

Reporter
"Will you be remaining in office until this general meeting takes place?"

Antonio Gonzalez
"Yes"

Reporter
"Are you ignoring their call to resign?"

Antonio Gonzalez
"We have reached a decision up there and we respect each other and we will be going through that procedure."

Kiera Broaster - CWU Member/Employee of SSB
"I've had my issues, the Stevedores do have very valid points and I agree with them and I stand by what they have been saying. These guys are telling the truth and I applaud them for bringing everything out in the forefront because we have been sitting in our offices and not wanting to deal with this issue - so I applaud these guys for coming out and making the public aware of what's happening. I stand by what they're doing; personally I believe that what they're doing that we can get leadership from other people - we have to see what the general membership decides."






Basil Brannon - Representative, Central Bank of Belize
"Like the Stevedores, we are the same but we have a process that we have to go through - we just can't kick someone out. We have to make sure that our financials are in place and so that is what we did, we came and compromised on two months or we move forward."








Dion Ras Pitta - Spokesperson, Stevedores
"I won't call it victory, this is not victory - this is 'cleaning up house' - no victory."

Today, the immediate past president of the CWU, Emerson Burke, released a letter to the media, which he sent to Gonzalez, in which he demanded that Gonzalez step down as President immediately.

Burke's resignation demand was premised on concerns he brought to the media some years ago, those being, the failure of the executive to deliver audited financial statements, poor management of the human resource at the head office, questionable tenure of officers, and the need for a broad-based negotiating team to prepare and put forward collective agreements.

As we've showed you, the Stevedores are complaining that audited financial statements have not been provided for years.

We got a chance to speak with a representative for the Central Bank of Belize, who told us that he asked for Gonzalez to remain in office until audits have been prepared so that he can answer to any discrepancies. Here's how he explained why they must do an audit even if it becomes an exercise in frustration:

Daniel Ortiz
"The discussion has been that there's been no financials for some years - how do you look into something like that?"

Basil Brannon - Representative, Central Bank of Belize
"Wow, that's a good question. I think with a little bit of auditing we can see how far we can go with that but that's as much as we can do."

Reporter
"With a forensic audit be fruitful at this point?"

Basil Brannon
"Maybe not, but we need to at least look into that direction to see where we can go."

Daniel Ortiz
"We've also noticed that it's been some years since they're have been an election for an executive - what has that discussion upstairs yielded?"

Basil Brannon
"What we do is that every four years we have general election because over the past ten years they've had elections and we're going to change all that. We're going to change our constitution to start with - that we didn't even know existed."

Daniel Ortiz
"Do you believe that Mr. Antonio Gonzalez has served the CWU efficiently in these past years?"

Basil Brannon
"We have to give the man some kind of credit, he was there for a while - so yes but it's time to move on. We need to do better."

Reporter
"Do you agree with the delayed resignation that that he's not going to resign with immediate effect?"

Basil Brannon
"We asked and I was adamant about that - that we don't just let people resign just like that. We need them to be accountable for they're doing and audit and then move from there with an AGM."

Reporter
"If an audit is conducted during his tenure and it doesn't satisfy what you're looking for, then what are the recourses against them?"

Basil Brannon
"Well when that is done then we can say but for right now we hope that the books are good and we will move forward there."

Reporter
"Who is the CWU's treasurer?"

Basil Brannon
"That's it - we don't have a treasurer - so actually they were missed. It's in a mess so we need to straighten all that out so we can move forward."

Reporter
"Who has the documents?"

Basil Brannon
"Mr. Gonz and Mr. McFoy."

As noted in the interview, the elections of the CWU will be held at their next general meeting scheduled for October 26.

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