Shyne Barrow Echoes Unions’ Sentiment on New P.B.L. Board

Shyne Barrow

The dust is yet to settle on the acquisition of the Port of Belize Limited by the Briceño administration.  Last Thursday, a piece of law was taken to parliament enabling the Government of Belize to proceed with the purchase of the facility, an expansive tract of land adjacent to the port, as well as the settlement of outstanding awards involving various Ashcroft-related entities.  Since then, much has been said about the re-nationalization of the company that had remained in receivership for almost eleven years.  The Christian Workers Union has weighed in, along with the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, openly stating that they were never consulted prior to the Prime Minister’s appointment of a union representative on the newly constituted board of directors.  Earlier today, Opposition Leader Shyne Barrow sounded off on the appointment on an interim executive.

Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“This is quintessential Briceño administration, everything done in the dark, everything done without any consultations in most instances and with extremely limited engagement of the stakeholders that are impacted.  I was shocked to hear the senator for the NTUCB say and confirm that not even the board member, former president Elena Smith, knew that she was tapped for that board. Here we are again.  We understand it is an interim board, but how difficult… They have been negotiating this purchase, this acquisition of the port, the re-nationalization of the port, for months.  How difficult is it to, while having these negotiations, say let us constitute an interim board, reach out to the union, reach out to the trade and commerce, reach out to whatever other stakeholders you think should be on this board so that once the acquisition is approved by the National Assembly, we can move post haste.  So, terrible management of a very serious situation by the prime minister and it begs the question that we’re starting bad, how is it that we’re going to actually make the port everything that it should be for the Belizean people as far as profitability, as far as ensuring that we have a board that is going to treat with the workers at the port, the stevedores, in a fashion that protects their rights, that gives them dignity and ensures for the smooth operations of the port.”