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It's a serious matter and one that came to a head last week when the Port of Belize simply refused to discuss anything other than the hours of work. That currently stands at 18 hours per shift - which is above the legally allowed 15 hours. The Port CEO says he wanted to force that impasse in negotiations over that point:..

Jules Vasquez- Reporter
"You, in fact, forced the impasse. The union in its release or in the letter said that the port didn't want to talk about anything else. They viewed that as, I suppose, intransigent and unreasonable, and declared their twenty-one days' notice. You stand by that?"

Arturo Tux Vasquez- CEO, Port of Belize Ltd
"The item of hours of work, which is where we are now, is something that from the very beginning, based on legal opinions both from legal minds and also from the labor commissioner, is to say that you are currently working outside the labor law. The labor law requires that you have at least nine hours. It doesn't say you will, it says you shall provide nine hours. That is not happening in the way that the stevedores are working. So, from 2012 we have been recommending a shift system to be able to keep us within the legal framework."

Jules Vasquez
"So, then, you all reached a point in the negotiations where you were deliberately inflexible?"

Arturo Tux Vasquez
"We? No."

Jules Vasquez
"I am saying if you will only talk about hours, is that a good faith negotiation? That sounds like a hard ball negotiation."

Arturo Tux Vasquez
"Okay, first of all I think that if we want to do proper negotiations we both have to realize that it is wrong. That is the first point."

Jules Vasquez
"By wrong you mean unlawful?"

Arturo Tux Vasquez
"Yes, unlawful. So, if we can agree that we need to move to a shift system that is convenient to anybody, we can then negotiate. But, if your position is, 'I will not change from what we are currently doing,' for me negotiations are finished when it comes to that particular point."

And while the impasse has triggered the CWU to give 21 days notice of industrial action - the Port hoped it would force the introduction of a third party, a mediator. That's under the collective bargaining negotiating framework - which Vasquez hopes will be reviewed and activated by the Labour Commissioner:

Arturo Tux Vasquez
"From our point of view we have recognized that we are at an impasse, we have notified them that yes we are in an impasse, and we have also said to them, 'let us take the steps now, according to our negotiating framework, to get rid of this impasse,' and that means introducing a mediator. According to the act the minister has the option to consider and to say to us you apparently have an internal process that you can follow to clear your impasse. In relation to that impasse, the minute we went into an impasse we wrote CWU telling them, 'guys, we are at an impasse and based on our negotiating framework, we now need to agree on a mediator.' I am the employer, how long can I continue to insist that something is wrong for my employee? Have you ever heard about an employee telling an employer what to do? That is the situation I am faced with for the last five or six years. There has to be a stop to it. The stop has to be that if you won't listen to me, you will have to listen to somebody else. And I am hoping that maybe that is where we are now. You need to introduce a third party who will then say to both of us, 'this is what you need to do.'"

Now, a strike at the Port of Belize would be a massive blow to the economy, seriously affecting the stock on store shelves, and the earnings from exports. But, the Port of Belize doesn't seem to be blinking. Vasquez said he's ready:..

Jules Vasquez
"Do you feel under pressure?"

Arturo Tux Vasquez
"In a way but we have already implemented the system since Monday. We have already implemented the system. So, we are also preparing ourselves in the event that there is a 21 day strike because at least this time you know beforehand. So, we are already doing it. From security aspect, from an operations point of view, we are already doing it. Because everybody knows what the strike will cost and if you are at a strike then you haven't really settled anything. I think the whole idea here is, first of all, to settle the dispute first, the best way possible. That is the whole idea. The 21 day notice, the strike, will not settle a dispute."

Both sides have been working towards a new collective bargaining agreement for over a decade. The CWU has said, quote, "This refusal to engage on any other matter that remains on the agreed list is no less than extreme bad faith."