Arturo "Tux" Vasquez, CEO, Port of Belize
"Before we talked about where we are now with the new leadership of the CWU. I think we need to go back to 2012 when I took on the receivership and we immediately started negotiations with the previous leadership of the CWU. Since 2012 and 2013, we have been negotiating a collective bargaining agreement and we have actually advance quite significantly. But that I mean that the stevedores for the last 7 years have never gotten an increase. So one of the agreements that we have done that we have implemented and paid to the stevedores is a 7 year back pay to all the stevedores, including salary increases for 2012 and 2013. Those were agreements that we made and we signed off and we paid them."

"So to be honest, the previous leadership did negotiate and we were able to complete that. We were also able to complete the fact that all stevedores are now insured for death and accident on and off the job. Before that there were no insurance and yes it is a risky job. So is security and the police. So that's a big step for them and for us. Because we were also aware of the fact that they were out there working, there were no insurance. Now they are all fully insured. But like anything else you can always better your insurance. But at least they are insured now. We also agreed on the pension ages, because while we were negotiating, people were reaching the ages of retirement. So we had to decide what were the retirement ages and we agreed on that and also we greed on some of the health and safety aspects."

"!8 September was the first time we met. And I think that was a very progressive meeting. In that meeting, she and I agreed, let's forget the past and let's move ahead. My suggestion to continue from the framework we have and the MOEs is not something I think she was in agreement with. She wants us to put a new framework together. Keeping all these things in mind, our recommendations was let's do a third addendum. If you read where you had started with the other two addendums and you can see where you would prefer to have somethings changed. Let's agree on a third addendum. That was our recommendation. Her recommendation is I want to do a new framework considering everything that you have done. So what we have done now, as of yesterday I have provided her with a counter-proposal of what that framework would look like and I have suggested that we meet next week to see if we can agree on the framework then we move to the collective bargaining agreement and we continue on negotiations. If we are sensible about be able to give and take, we should be able to settle this very easily."

The CWU and port management will meet next week to continue negotiations. Vasquez told us that once both sides agree on a framework then they can move forward.