Lord Michael Ashcroft Asks “Which Stevedores” In Response to G.O.B. Compensation for Port Privatization

On Thursday, Lord Michael Ashcroft responded to a Breakingbelizenews.com article on the one point five million dollars the Government of Belize has agreed to pay Port of Belize stevedores for the financial hardship they claim they suffered since the port was privatized back in 2002. Lord Ashcroft raised the question of who exactly will be sharing the compensation package, tweeting “That’s fascinating. So who gets the money? Shouldn’t it be the stevedores who were employed at the time of the privatization, or is it every stevedore employed since privatization, or is it length of service, or is it for the current stevedores even if they weren’t there at privatization?”. The decision taken by the government came just days after the end of a strike by stevedores which lasted for over a week. Some ships diverted to Big Creek in the interim and at least one turned around and went back to the United States. The Port of Belize has said they are considering filing suit for the one million dollars in lost revenue during the strike.