Yesterday, around 75 BEL employees and union members showed up to work in casual clothes - not in uniform. The dispute is over uniforms which management promised in January - but they haven't reached yet.
Now, showing up at BEL without a uniform is frowned upon - so the management told those who weren't wearing uniforms to go home and get changed.
But, that didn't happen - those who went home just didn't come back. It could have been the start of a testy labour dispute - but - things got ironed out today - as neatly as the crisp seam on an (imaginary) new uniform. General Secretary Marvin Mora told us more via phone:
Marvin Mora - General Secretary BEWU
"The issue is that a portion of our membership has not received their uniforms. We have a CBA that clearly states that you must be given every year and of course by every year it's clear that it's supposed to be by the ending of June, the latest. Of course, they union have been flexible and the union has been trying. We have seen that at least of late we seen management do what is within their means to be able to put issue to rest, but like I said they did not really reached this particular junction just like that overnight. The union took steps and eventually the membership felt that way that's what they did. What I can tell you is that we had a meeting today and most of the concerns that regard and some other were placed before management and they are doing all they can to adjust that as far as we can say. We also want to take this opportunity and I speak on behalf of the Belize Energy Workers Union - all our members to basically apologize to our customers, of BEL, who are our customers mainly because some of the actions may or may not have affected them directly or indirectly. So, we just want them to know that we will do all it takes to be able to avoid any issues where they are affected."
Mora told us that he hopes that the management of BEL maintains the positions agreed upon in today's discussions.
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