C.W.U. and P.B.L. Buck Heads over Collective Bargaining Agreement

The Christian Workers Union is at a critical juncture once again in its negotiations with the Port of Belize Limited.  After lengthy discussions over a period of several years, the C.W.U. was finally able to secure a collective bargaining agreement for waterfront workers who are members of the labor organization.  The same cannot be said for employees of P.B.L. who are also represented by the union.  This morning, the C.W.U. called a press conference in which a number of pressing issues came to light, including the fact that discussions have been virtually exhausted between both parties.  Notwithstanding a mediation exercise, the matter concerning a management-union agreement for P.B.L. staff remains unresolved.

Evan ‘Mose’ Hyde

Evan ‘Mose’ Hyde, President, C.W.U.

“We have reached a point where, on the matter of stevedores at P.B.L. and staff, where despite a lot of diplomatic effort we have been unable to make any movement on significant issues that our members have very serious concerns about.  As you know, or I assume you know that while we were able to achieve a C.B.A. for stevedores last year, we were never able to get a C.B.A. for our staff which is a sister unit at P.B.L., represented by the C.W.U.  That matter went to mediation but was not resolved by mediation and we’ve been asking P.B.L. management to meet with us to discuss the issues to see what we can do. The position of the employer is that they can only deal with one issue at a time and because we have been engaged with them to finalize an agreement on behalf of the stevedores with secondary substitutes, their position is that we have to sign that or they will not talk about anything else.”