PBL and CWU to tackle Collective Bargaining Agreement

Andy Lane

We also asked C.E.O. Lane about ongoing negotiations between P.B.L. and the C.W.U. collective bargaining agreement. Discussions began on Wednesday and have been ongoing for the past three days. When we spoke to C.E.O. Lane before today’s meeting, he noted that an agreement has been reached for up to ten of the twenty points in the C.B.A.

Andy Lane, CEO, Port of Belize Limited

“There are also, just to be realistic; there are also a number of issues that remains outstanding. There is quite some difference in what the union would like, verses what we can afford to do. Do you foresee that an agreement would be reached in those areas or that those issues would lead to another stale mate in these negotiations? The good news is that there should not be a stalemate. As of August third, the Labor Minister has evoked the Essential Service Arbitration Tribunal. And, those discussions will start on the third of August. They will obviously need to come to us, and we will need to provide them with a lot of information. And then, they will need time to deliberate. And obviously, they will need to be cross referencing against employment laws and Labor Act. This is not a quick process. It is not a simple process. There is a certain amount of complexity involved. But basically, that conversation will start on August third. I have no idea how long that will take. What we will do with the CWU, is that next week, starting Wednesday, we will turn our attention to a different issue, the sugar issue. We will have those discussions next week. The staff CBA will be paused today, if we don’t reach an agreement today. We might reach an agreement, but there I a lot of work still to do. So I just want to manage expectations.”