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In December of 2013, Audrey Matura Shepherd took over the helm of the Christian Workers Union. That's after a push from the Stevedores who more or less forced President Antonio Gonzalez and General Secretary James McFoy out of the union headquarters.

Since then, we've seen Matura Shepherd in many other milieus, but not very often in the on the frontlines for the CWU. But, today she held a press conference to give a sort of state of her union address. She told the media that the last 13 months have been challenging – mainly because she took over union head office with no records:…

Audrey Matura-Shepherd - President, CWU

"It was amazing after one decade of not having any election at this union, what we inherited. What we inherited was an office with very limited records of it's members and work, with no workable equipment and it's account being empty and being in debt. We could not believe what was happening. They actually had to go back to the institutions, to the employers and ask them to help us with certain records and literally the executive members come in here extra days and sometimes weekends to input that record, so we build back our own records. Sadly, some records we'll never get back."

Floyd Neal - CWU General Secretary

"We're well away from where we were at the change of administration from being in the red, we're not operating under black and a large portion of it is due to the fact we recruited new membership."

Audrey Matura-Shepherd

"We can boast that we have move from only 657 members, we now have an increase of 857 members, which represents 31% increase in one year. As we move ahead, CWU is looking forward in holding it's first official annual general meeting on Saturday, February 28th, 2015 at which time we hope our members will be able to approve our new constitution. Also we hope that our workers will also approve the increase in union dues, which is essential for the union to be able to have the machinery and the staff and the resources we need to keep on representing the interest. I think that this one year report card shows that we have worked for them, and for the first time, we'll have positive accounts and literally accounts on our financial standing."

Floyd Neal

"I think what we've been able to achieve within the year goes some where in convincing members that, an increase in the dues is a solid argument and it's a worthy cause."

Audrey Matura-Shepherd

"What we're trying to do is level the playing field so that everybody pays 15 dollars."

The final figure on the increase in union fees is has not been finalised, but will be put to membership at the upcoming general meeting on February 28, 2015.

So, what about the stevedores? They're the ones who started the whole shakeup inside the CWU – and they did that because they felt that the former union bosses McFoy and Gonzalez were not properly managing their negotiations with the Port of Belize. The stevedores had been hammering away at a new collective bargaining agreement for years – but now they've taken a new tack: they've abandoned the course that Gonzalez and McFoy were leading them on.

Deon Pitter, Stevedore

"The leadership of Mr. Gonzales, I feel like we got mislead. So we'll stumble on little mistakes in this process but we're starting from the bottom come up. We meet with Mr. Neal, discuss, put everything on the table, when that's finished, Audrey with proof check everything then on to the port. It's negotiating, they have their position, we'll keep our position and talk over that, so that's the spot we are."

Floyd Neal

"The draft we're working on currently will include elements that came from these series of meetings that we had with port of Belize before there was a change in administration."

Audrey Matura-Shepherd

"So in a way it's a new document, it's a whole new era for us, we're not going back to the Gonzales-McFoy era; And I don't know where port of Belize will stand but I know that one of the things they have wanted immediately after I took over leadership was to go to the negotiating table and I said I'd be a fool to do that. You want me to walk into a war zone you all created, I have no background, I've not consulted with my members. I will not let them force my hand to go to the table unless I feel that my membership is fully aware. I would never want to be accused of being the type of leader that decided what I want to put in a CBA. I will be there to fight for what my workers want, so when we go to that negotiating table, it will go when we are ready. I know that port of Belize has tried to send us letters and create it's own little pressure, but we're not caving in. Because when we go on that negotiating table, we have to be on level playing field."

Deon Pitter

"At this 2014 with these pirates out there for engage in our leadership and make sure we get the best for us."

The stevedores say they are now consulting on their own CBA which will be taken to membership shortly before they go back to the Port of Belize. This is one of 8 CBA';s currently being worked on by the Union.

To handle the increased membership and workload, the Union has taken on a Labour Relations Officer; he is Earl Jones, the former Magistrate and Prison CEO. And the union has also had to hire outside auditors to assess their impaired accounts:…

Audrey Matura-Shepherd

"We're doing an audit for where we came in immediately, what we can account for. That will be presented at the AGM and then we have a long term audit where we've tried to do enough work on it but one our set back is the auditor ask us to bring in Mr. Gonzales or Mr. McFoy to answer certain questions. Because when there is information gap in an audit you have to do an interview to fill that gap and they have refused to come and provide the information. So sadly we will have crippled audit but we have to do it nonetheless."

The CWU has managed to get current with its membership fees in the NTUCB – though it still has significant arrears.