And the former president, Evan Mose Hyde, has said that they have put off industrial action, hoping that PBL would opt to come to the table and begin discussions. And while there has been mediation with the Ministry of Labor, that still hasn't happened, leaving the stevedores with no other choice.

Still, CWU's release ends by saying they're ready to engage in good-faith negotiations with PBL to resolve the issue.

However, it doesn't seem like the PBL intends to have any sort of negotiations. In their own press release, the called the strike notice "unreasonably issued" and stated, quote, "The CWU's notice to strike is based on its entirely misconceived interpretation of the Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal ruling of 30th March 2022 which the CWU wrongfully asserts awarded its member stevedores redundancy payments for the move of bulk sugar to the Port of Big Creek. No such award was issued by the ESAT." End quote.

The release continues by stating that the CWU are, quote, "well aware" that no stevedore has been made redundant because of the move of bulk sugar to the Port of Big Creek. They also added that while the port has suffered significant losses because of the move, they have, quote, "solely born those losses despite the fact that the reason Belize Sugar Industries Limited decided to move its shipping of bulk sugar to the Port of Big Creek was because of the inefficient and unreliable manner in which stevedores discharged their duties… The repeated and unreasonable use of industrial action by the CWU holds the entire Belizean economy at ransom as goods remain at a standstill at PBL causing substantial losses to producers, importers and exporters of goods who rely on the functionality of PBL." End quote.