Two weeks ago, the CWU, representing the stevedores, gave the Port of Belize and the Minister of Labour notice of industrial action. Since then government has set up an Essential Services Arbitration Tribunal which has the effect of halting the march to industrial action.
The CWU has called that tribunal manifestly biased because government owns the port and has now set up a tribunal where it controls a majority of the members.
Today the CWU president urged the government- as owners of the port - to abandon the tribunal do right by the stevedores:
Leonora Flowers, CWU President
"Our concerns surround the fact that it does not bode well for the CWU its members and all the workers of Belize that the government owns the company and the government has it's management that has not made a decent offer to the Stevedores and then when we reach an impasse we indicated such and we sent a notice to the minister. The government turns around and empanels the tribunal and the government again chooses its three members to sit on a five member panel. No matter how you cut that no matter how you slice it that doesn't look fair there is no justice that we can await coming from such a makeup of the tribunal ad we don't say this to cause any slight on the members of the tribunal they may believe or they may want to think that we are putting their integrity to impunity we are not we are not, we are not looking at the person we are looking at how it looks on the face of it. We cannot ask the same government who owns the port to set up a tribunal to give us justice."
"We are asking the government to do what it needs to do and to come clean, you own the port you can make an offer to the Stevedores you can resolve this matter. The cost of living has gone up for every single worker in the country of Belize every single household can tell you what I used to buy with a hundred dollars I can no longer buy that, my bags are this tiny when I go to the stores and the government knows that. We have a statistical institute which explains that from month to month so the government we are asking them to come to the table and make a decent offer and close the deal resolve it o the extent that you do not need to empanel a tribunal which is a farce in the face of the Belizean people whom you came to on the 8th of December 2023 and said that we took over the port. We acquired the port for the people of Belize but it now belongs to the government yet you still continue to take us down the same road that the other person took us. How that be just?"
Reporter
"At this point the 21 day notice of industrial action has seemingly been removed from the table in favor of the ISAT stepping in to arbitrate the matter. What happens if you don't get the satisfaction that is being sought as the union?"
Leonora Flowers, CWU President
"That would be remiss of me too say what happens. I won't speak on behalf of the stevedores and on that I will say no comment. We are holding out all hope and asking the government, in fact we are demanding that they look at the travesty that is about to occur and do the honourable thing, do the right thing, come to the table and say, instruct your management of the port, YOUR PORT, what to do and how to resolve this matter."
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