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He met with both sides in Belmopan: management represented by senior executive Sean Fuller in the morning; and the union represented by Marvin Mora in the afternoon. He finished with the unions close to five pm - after a two and a half hour session. Hulse was encouraged and confident a compromise can be reached. He spoke to us via telephone:..

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Labour
"To bring those issues together, so that we can have an amicable conclusion and wind in a satisfactory agreement to both parties."

Jules Vasquez
"Okay, now is there a timeframe for this ministerial intervention?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Labour
"Yes there is. I have promise the unions that we will get to them by Tuesday. Between now and that time, Tuesday next week, we will be in touch with the management side to discuss the union's position and then we see where it goes from there. But we hope to expedite this process so that this can be resolve in the shortest possible time."

Jules Vasquez
"We are talking (we are outsiders, you are inside the process now) a significant amount of money involved. In terms of 8.2% cross the board increase, millions of dollars or at least over one million dollars and also a significant re-arrangement of the vesting and the sick leave. Are you able to find common ground on those very divisive issues?"

Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Labour
"Yes. We believe that this sick leave issue is one that we can solve rather quickly and amicably. On the vesting issue, again, we figure we can also find some compromise there having listen to both parties. I am not prepared to say what those compromises are at this period in time. And then on the increases which is going to be the most difficult one. We feel that there is room to move, because there is significant being proposed and there is significant money being requested, but we figure that we can find way to balance that off to the satisfaction of both sides."

To repeat Hulse told the unions he would get back to them by next week Tuesday. Union Rep. Marvin Mora told us this evening that he is cautiously optimistic after a frank and open conversation. Here's his interview with PLUS TV:

Marvin Mora, Belize Energy Workers Union
"Actually today, what we discussed today is basically just the issues, the concerns that the union have and how we arrive at this situation. Mind you, the Minister still has to do his part and try to bridge the gap together. So we are going to kind of rest it a little bit."

"One thing I can tell you is that we have preliminary, without actually going to our members, because we want to be responsible and show a sign of good faith - we are going to hold back the demonstrations until we hear from the Minister sometime next week."

Reporter
"Whats next for the unions?"

Marvin Mora, Belize Energy Workers Union
"We are what you call "cautiously optimistic" that we are going to get some good results. But we will find out what will happen and depending on what happens then our membership and our leadership will have to take a decision."

We'll keep following the story.