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Today, Trujeque - who is trained in industrial relations - said he wants to engage employers in a different way:

Dale Trujeque, CWU President
"I think I want to look at a new model of how we engage our employers, while at the same time looking for the best for my members, my people. I can devote my fully to CWU matters during the day if I want to. So, the employers would be aware that I will always be ready to come and see them."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"The stevedores remain one of the most visible and vocal members of the CWU. When you think CWU is nothing, Central Bank or City Council or Social Security, you think stevedores. Explain to me how you will approach their CBA which they have been working on with the Port of Belize for 10 years?"

Dale Trujeque, CWU President
"It's been in abeyance too, I understand for over a year now. There's an obligation on the employer who engage us in a dialogue to arrive at a CBA and so I have to rely on what the statute provides for us while at the same time letting the employer see we not only what certain things from them, but we want to work with the employers, the stevedores want to work with the employer. The feel I got in just a short conversation I had with the guys over the weekend some of them, is that there's a lack of appreciation on management side and I haven't spoken to management. So, I don't want to be unfair to Tux and his team. You run this thing but we still don't understand our situation out there. You got to understand how the stevedores operate and how they talk and stuff. There is a lot noise that gets in between the conversation. Then the issue has gotten lost and I want to think some of it is like that, like what happened. So, we have to go back to Tux and say listen let us sit and continue the conversation."

And while his predecessor Audrey Matura was known as an outspoken personality, in what direction will the union go under Trujeque's leadership? He said it must be bold:

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"The remarks made by your keynote speaker Mr. Evan X Hyde urge the union to be more like the BNTU; more proactive, more engaged, more socially engaged."

Dale Trujeque, CWU President
"A part of the process is to educate people as to what your role is a union in respect to the larger society. So I want to make them socially conscious that we can be comfortable in our little bubble, but sometimes we have to make the bubble prick, let the air out and let us hit something to say 'it's not only I who are here, we have to get up and help these people.' Because we are becoming - we are marginalizing larger portions, larger segments of our population and we need to stop and ask why we are doing it and then don't talk the talk, but actively let us find some ways how to make better."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"So, to make it clear, you believe that unions do have a role in advocacy and making public statements, almost as an activist group."

Trujeque told us that even with close to 900 Members, representing Workers at the Belize City Council, the Belize Port Authority, the Belmopan City Council, the Central Bank of Belize-Security Officers, the Central Bank of Belize-Staff, Citrus Products of Belize Ltd, Institute of Archaeology of the National Institute of Culture & History, Port of Belize Ltd, the Social Security Board, the Statistical Institute of Belize and St. Martin's Credit Union Ltd., the union is just breaking even:..

Dale Trujeque, CWU President
`Things is still tight. The union's only source of income is dues. That's the only source of income and we are not unions like the other types, different units pay different amounts is dues. So, you can't measure your income stream easily that way. Maybe what we need to do - there are several things we have to look at to increase the income, because after you pay out salaries to 2 fulltime staff and you watch the overhead, you're just barely making it - you're breaking even."

Notably, this is not the first time Trujeque succeeds Audrey Matura Sheperrd. About 17 years ago, he took over as editor at the Guardian newspaper after she left to study law.