We confirmed this as the Port's position today when we spoke with CEO and Receiver, Arturo "Tux" Vasquez, who explained that this movement was foretold. Here's how he explained why:

Arturo "Tux" Vasquez - CEO, Port of Belize
"As far as the negotiation is concerned, it appeared that there was something happening because the union - four weeks in a row - had postponed our weekly meetings since we last met with the Labor commissioner to confirm and to agree in front of him that these negotiations would continue. Just before we met with the labor commissioner, the problem that the union had at the time was that their negotiating team had fallen apart and that's one of the reasons that they needed to regroup their negotiating team and then they would continue. All these delays have never been because of the Port of Belize so when we met with the labor commissioner 5 weeks ago, it is in that presence that they agreed that they would remain with their same negotiating team and they would resume their weekly meetings from then on. But I have written correspondence to show that every week following that - they had postponed for one reason or another so perhaps they never had their negotiating team back in place. As far as this ongoing issue affects the negotiations, I think all we can do from the port and we have issued a correspondence to the president which we still respect as the president of CWU - that due to the ongoing issues that they are having that we have to postpone negotiations until we hear back from them; that's really our positron right now in terms of the negotiations. The Stevedores were well behind their leaders, the negotiating team were made up of Stevedores- some of the same guy that are on the television now so it was always common knowledge by the Stevedores that this was their negotiating team. We were aware that they were no elections for a while, no financial reports and as a matter of fact, I personally brought it up to the Union members on one or two occasions, carefully so, because I didn't want it to appear as if I'm trying to break any type of Union but it was an issue that we had mentioned to senior member of the union. At the time I guess they were not prepared to make any challenge so what I'm seeing happening now, to be honest, I don't know where it originated from or who got up one morning and decided 'well we have had enough of this', I don't know."

Another issue which Vasquez spoke on is that the Port has kept their silence while trying to keep a pleasant industrial relationship during the negotiations, but there have been comments from the stevedores which he believes has misrepresented the progress they've made.

Here's how he described the leaps forward which have gone unnoticed:

Arturo "Tux" Vasquez
"The Stevedore's may want to suggest that it may be our negotiations but I don't think that that is a valid reason because we have really moved forward since these negotiations have started. We have signed off on four agreements, the Stevedore's have been paid 'back pay' for seven years, they have had increases which they never had before. All 150 Stevedores are fully insured which has never happened before and there are two other issues I think that were addressed. So negotiations have been going on, our delays recently, in my opinion because the union has not been able to keep their members to their together - whenever we have a meeting they are all scattered, one will show and one will not show and in most cases and I think for a while Mr. Gonzalez was ill, I think he was away and Mr. McFoy was following up on it. Some of the things that are still on the table like gang sizes and working hours - I think those things can easily be resolved if both sides are willing to give and take. Where the working hours are concerned, we have already shown to the union in front of the Labor Commissioner that legally they have to abide by certain laws when it comes to working hours."

And as to those things which they haven't agreed to, we asked Vasquez if it is an accurate representation which the stevedores have presented that Gonzalez has failed to negotiate their position with enough forcefulness as they would like to see. He told us that, this is a matter of opinion, but his impression is that there are other issues which have been ignored, but which he believes has caused the discussions to drag along:

Arturo "Tux" Vasquez
"I don't think Mr. Gonzalez is a 'soft' person, he tries to defend all the situations and all the positions put forth. In my opinion, I think that it is wrong the way the union negotiates is perhaps this is why he has to do this and if it s that that makes him soft then I will say that it is the same union that allowed him to be soft. If you have a negotiating team that will represent 150 Stevedores, I would imagine that after putting that team together, you have given them the strength and the authority to make certain decisions on your behalf. Now where I find where the problem comes in is that the negotiating team are never able to make decisions. They have to leave and speak to 150 Stevedores and then come back. Can you imagine having 150 opinions? So in my opinion, that is what I see as being the difficulty in negotiating. There's a negotiating team in my view, that does not have the authority. My experience with the president is that he has to always go back and get an approval so I don't know if you agree with me, but that would be very difficult to do. The team should be given that authority to say, you're there to negotiate for us and do the best that you can for us and sometimes I do believe that that is the reason why the negotiations takes so long. We can agree on something here, we can see where we have come to an agreement - it has taken back and everything then just starts all over again. I don't disagree with having to go back and report to your team because on my side I have to do the same thing but I believe that it is how you report. If I sit at a meeting and I go back to my 150 people, I think I need to convince them of the decisions that I have made and I'm not in those meetings but somehow I get the impressions that maybe that is where the leadership of the union is failing because they are not able to go back and convince these people because if you weigh what has just been decided, we are better off with this sort of thing."