The Port of Belize remained closed today due to a strike, and the CFS Pacora, left for Jamaica with all its Belize-bound containers unloaded.
That's the status quo at the Port of Belize since Wednesday of last week when chaos erupted after 36 persons were terminated via text message.
But, things changed a little today when PBL went on the offensive claiming that CWU wanted neither mediation nor resolution to the difficulties at the Port.
The PBL circulated a proposal for a mediation process which had been broached between the two sides yesterday. But, the CWU ultimately rejected it.
And this morning in a Press release the Port said quote: "It is regrettable that CWU, without justification, decided to reject out of hand the proposed mediation process aimed at resolving, once and for all, the existing disputes."
CWU president, Mose Hyde says that while the union refused to participate in that mediation, they only did so to reject mediation that outside the legal regulatory body that is the Ministry of Labour.
Mose Hyde, President, CWU
"The mediation that they spoke about was a mediation where it would be outside the ministry of labor and we are very uncomfortable with that because they were even saying to our attorney that they don't believe that there's a mediator in the country that can mediate this situation. And they were also proposing that we should look outside of the country. Now, all that process involves cost of course. They don't have a problem with cost obviously our members and this union does but beyond that we don't want to go outside of the oversight of the regulatory body for the labor law and there is a provision for mediation under that labor law. So we said no problem with mediation as long as it's under that body. As long as it's under the watch of the ministry of labor and the mediation that is provided in the law. That was our point. So it was absolutely stunning to us to find out that there was a Press release that says CWU has rejected mediation when, and what they're trying to do is to create this narrative that we are indifferent to what's going on with this lockdown that we don't care about the impact its having on all the stakeholders when it is clearly that we have been concerned about the implications even before we reach this point. Why is it we started our outreach to stakeholders, we started a protest that did not involve disruption. We took a methodical approach to this process out of absolute respect for the implications of an all our confrontation, so they could not be further from the truth, but even now we have been saying to PBL, a CBA negotiation cannot be something that is mediated, it has to be be negotiated."
The attorney for the Port says that as a matter of law, the minister refers a dispute to a Tribunal or some other process. The ministry itself, does not conduct mediation, it facilitates it.
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