Email

Print

Arturo "Tux" Vasquez, CEO, Port of Belize
"As you know everything came back to normal on Friday and we have been able to work in harmony for all the ships that have come in so far. As you know the port and the CWU were having some sort of negotiations, we are trying to get this thing going and at the end of the day I think we decided to proceed without signing anything in the document at all. So, the only agreement that we had is that we continue to negotiate on the 15th which is tomorrow - which is a day that was scheduled before and I would assume based on the previous conversation we had that the meeting would about the pension. We had a boat waiting outside English Caye. That boat managed to come in on Friday at around 4 I think and I think stevedore work started as plan around 5, then I think there was another boat on Saturday and there is one today or last night. Am not too certain what time they came in. I know we have worked all the ships since that. Again, like I said it's really just for us to have agreed that they will come back to work and we will just go back to negotiations on the 15th. Of course you know what the contentions were, that we were not prepared to backdate the pension because that was never the agreement. So I am expecting that that's where the conversation will continue tomorrow in our meeting. I am hoping that we can continue negotiating and try to keep the strike at the minimum. I have kept asking for some notice period when it comes to striking because from my side, it is very difficult for me to continue to negotiate in a strike situation."

So while the port officials and the stevedores are back on a hopeful and optimistic note, the incident with the cargo ship that sailed without delivering the cargo still needs to be addressed. CEO Vasquez says they are still assessing the financial losses and the impact it had on businesses.

Arturo "Tux" Vasquez, CEO, Port of Belize
"Those cargo I am sure was expected to come back under the next voyage."

Courtney Weatherburne
"So in terms of the business or economic perspective of that cargo ship, how is that? How are you going to regulate that? I am sure there is still a major loss, but how is it on the business side of that particular situation?"

Arturo "Tux" Vasquez, CEO, Port of Belize
"We are still in the middle of quantifying all of that cost and I think that that has to be looked at for sure because there were some kind of loss there and that is something that I think will perhaps need to be looked at later on and see if there is any claims and the claim could come to the port, it could come to the Christian Workers Union, it could come to anybody. So those are things I think if there is any consequence to that - that is certainly something that we can't throw through the window."

Vasquez told us that he will meet with the CWU tomorrow and on the 22nd and that the priority is to agree and finalize the retirement/pension plan for the stevedores. And what about the five containers of butterball turkeys imported by Quality Poultry Products? Last we told those were stuck at the Santo Tomas port in Guatemala. Well, they arrived in country on Friday and are expected to reach stores tomorrow. As we reported, turkeys had to be imported this year - as much as 200 thousand pounds - because the Avian Influenza scare stopped local producers from producing.