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Close to 4:00 we got a chance to speak with both sides. We start first with the President of the CWU, who said that he was able to advance the concerns of the stevedores, but that the union is still not prepared to stop the 21 day countdown to a strike:

Evan "Mose" Hyde, President - CWU
"We basically described to them what our counter proposal would look like. As our members would be able to tell you that to be able to put that counter proposal into numbers is going to take a lot of work and so we told them we only met with our members yesterday morning to get their agreement as to what form or counter proposal would take. Now our accountant is going to fleshed that out with numbers. There are several variables when you are trying to figure out - because the essence of our counter proposal is that while we believe we are empowered and we believe the minister of labor is empowered to deal with this matter. As a matter of goodwill our members approved our counter proposal that says if we are to work for 15 hours as our ceiling, and money is not the issue for the Port, that essentially the way you would deal with that is to adjust the rates so that our members net earnings per year is not affected. But to figure out what those rates would be when adjusted. to work out that final value is going to take some time and so we've been working back and forth on that issue with the Port. But we also had issues that we felt needed to be looked at because we are at a position now where until we are comfortable and confident that this process has actually changed and this negotiations has actually changed, we are not going to take off the 21 day notice that we have given and while I must say that we were able to make some movements, we are going to reconvene here tomorrow afternoon. As of now though our 21 days' notice is still in effect. But I want to tell our members that we were able to get movement on the issue of outstanding salary increases. This has been a big issue for our members. You have to understand that in 2012 we signed a memorandum of understanding that our members would get an annual increase on their monies of 15 cents on the hour. They were paid for 2013 and 2014. Since then there have been no increases. What we have gotten from Port is a commitment that all those outstanding dues money will be paid to our members in 2 payments and they will be telling us when those payments will be made tomorrow afternoon. That is an important thing for our members and an important act of goodwill and movement of the needle for us. We now have to look if whether or not the essence of our counter proposal will be looked at with a favorable outlook from the Port. Meaning, do they accept in principle that we can adjust the rates; the hourly rates, the container rate - when we demonstrate what the law says to make sure that our members' don't lose any money."

About half hour later, Port CEO Arturo "Tux" Vasquez hosted an impromptu press briefing back at his office and he shared his impression of how the meeting went, from the Port's perspective:

Reporter
"How do you characterized the lengthy discussions you all had today?"

Arturo "Tux" Vasquez, CEO - Port of Belize
"Productive. I think that we started out really by trying to identify exactly what are the items that are left to be negotiated, which obviously would be what is included in how we move forward. But of course you know that the main item of contention right now is hours of work. So I think by agreeing that a counter proposal will come from the union, that is a big step forward. Because before that they were not prepared to change any at all. So now they are prepared to give us a counter proposal and now they are also prepared to give us a date when they will provide a counter proposal to us. They promise to provide a skeleton of what they intend to present more in details in November. So I guess I would have to wait to see what that proposal looks like first."

"There is a discussion more or less around the fact that if there are some changes there may be a bit of compensation issues that may occur. However, there was no way for me to commit to that. I would have to commit to that once I get the details. But I do believe that if there is anything there that we are able to compensate, of course would look at it and see how best we can. Of course you know that with any change you can't just change and everything remains the same. That's just not the situation."

Reporter
"Until then, however, the deadline for the 21 day notice to be up is still running. Have you decided on a contingency in the event that Friday does come and you guys are still at a deadlock?"

Arturo "Tux" Vasquez, CEO - Port of Belize
"I think that with the present of the labor department in this meeting, I believe that the progress that we have made, I will be a bit surprised if the strike still remains. However, there is always contingencies in place, but in my view we progressed quite a bit today."

"One of the remuneration issues that there has been in the agreement that there were some remuneration to be paid. We had paid originally 12, 13, and 14. We had paid that then because the understanding was that when we did that in 2012, we had expected a CBA to be signed in 2012. So that's the reason why 3 years was paid. So you would have expected that after 3 years, you would have continued. However, we all agreed that yes, it was agreed that this would be paid for the life of the agreement, which would mean that it would be moved into the CBA. So yeah, I agreed to pay the 4 years. And of course it was using that as a negotiating framework. My bargain has actually for us to get to at least getting a date from the union as to when their proposal will be coming to us. Because, if there was any difficulty today it was getting a definate date, as to when we would expect that detail proposal from them."

And so, while, in principle, these two concerns for both sides have been resolved, the final written details need to be worked out carefully. Another issue that the Port wants to resolve is a dispute resolution mechanism to address disciplinary matters between them and the stevedores.

Vasquez stressed to us that these proposals are also outstanding from since 2012, and there has not been any real movement on finalize them:

Arturo "Tux" Vasquez, CEO - Port of Belize
"We also provided proposal for disciplinary and grievance machinery to the union. That again has something similar to the hours of work that has been pending since about way back to 2012 and re-introduced in 2015 by Dale Trujeque. So we have already provided the union with those 2 proposals as well. So we would expect that they'd be looking at those as well. The grievance and disciplinary is with any employee and employer. How do you proceed with disciplining employment? That's basically what it it and if there is a grievance, how do you address the grievance? Those are 2 thing you would agree are also very important, because at this point we don't have anything in writing to say how do you really deal with a disciplinary situation. I reminded the union yesterday that these things are also pending and these are proposals that we had proposed since 2012 and then we re-proposed again, under Dale Trujeque in 2015 and then we again, resubmitted to the union again. So similar to the hours of work. Similar to the remuneration - these are also important aspects of employee/employer relationships that we really need to get down and agree to."

The meetings between the Port and the CWU continues tomorrow afternoon, and we'll tell you about them in tomorrow night's newscast.