And what about that sister unit, the staff of the Port of Belize? They watched with the nation as the stevedores who stood united with their cause were treated to tear gas and rubber bullets.
And while 36 of them have lost their jobs, those who survived the redundancy have had their full salaries restored, ending the much criticized 10% paycuts.
It's a move that CWU President calls classic divide and rule, but he sympathizes with the staff which is still deciding where they stand.
Mose Hyde, President, CWU
"We have not had the opportunity to have chorum with the staff who remain. We had a handful come by yesterday evening and they are in a very difficult place. The difficult place is that they have seen their reps and their fellow brothers and sisters pushed out in a most disgraceful fashion and then as a way of standing up in the defense of those members they saw what happened on Wednesday. At the same time these people have their responsibilities, their dependents, their bills, their families and they've been told come back to work. They are also now being told, in fact from late last week they were told we heard that the company intended to restore their 10% reduction. Somehow they try to put that as a sweetener. Its classic divide and rule to make sure that you have a conflict build up between those who survived the unlawful redundancy and those who did not. So the situation there is that you have a lot of our members who are doing soul searching to figure out what do I do, where do I stand."
Reporter
"As a bargaining unit, that bad for you and the CWU and the employees."
Mose Hyde, President, CWU
"We understand these sentiments are human sentiments, these are as natural as anything, because that is where you have to make the decision. You have to look at where you are, you have to understand where your solidarity is, but we will hear from them, because that is our job. We want to hear from them to know where they are and when we do then we are able to say this is their position."
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