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Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General/Minister of National Security
"We did not think that just summarily trying to dismiss people without the process taking place, was in the best interest of the stevedores, the company or the Port of Belize. So we felt that it was neccessary to at least bring the court's attention to it and hopefully we can get the court to stop the company from dismissing these people before we can exhaust the process that was agreed upon."

Reporter
"Why at the eleventh hour would an injunction be sought when you guys knew that this was coming and perhaps could have proceeded to do so prior to the service of those letters."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"The real question is, why would they attempt to fire the people just before you have a hearing? If they believe that they have every legal right to dismiss those employees then just wait for the court to say so. We filed this from yesterday. We decided on this from early in the week, so it's not like a last-minute application we made. We never thought that these people would be so low as to actually do that, but when we found out that they were hundred percent serious about it, then we realized that we had to represent the Labor Department since the Labor Department being a government department is full-fledged a part of the process of trying to mediate between the port and the stevedores."

"It's not that we acted too late, it's that we realize then at that point that they were seriously going to attempt to do this when all along they claim that they were trying to go through the process to come to some sort of amicable settlement."

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"You're acting against an actor who does not care what the state may say, the actor may feel it is within his prerogative to hire and fire as any private company would."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte
"That is an essential service though, that's one issue. One of the problems is that is an essential service to the country. So any dealings with those workers or that company and that situation has to be carefully looked at by the government."