P.B.L. and C.W.U. to Meet this Week

Andy Lane

C.E.O. Lane also addressed the negotiations between P.B.L. and the Christian Workers Union since talks resume on Wednesday.  Lane says a first meeting will be held to discuss the staff Collective Bargaining Agreement and then another meeting will discuss a request from the union for sugar redundancy packages, with the move by A.S.R./B.S.I. to the Big Creek Port.

Andy Lane, C.E.O., Port of Belize Limited

“We will get into those discussions starting on Wednesday with the staff CBA. And, we will continue discussions next week in relation to stevedores and the sugar redundancy. Just to get on to that, the word redundancy.”

Marleni Cuellar, Host, Open Your Eyes

“I was going to say, so PBL will have to pay redundancy to stevedores who will no longer be collecting that portion based on sugar?”

Andy Lane

“Well the thing is, redundancy means that you leave employments and you get compensated and severed from t hat employment. We are not severing the employment of anybody. So there is no redundancy.”

Marleni Cuellar

“You can imagine that this is not going to be a position that is accepted by the stevedores.”

Andy Lane

“I have spoken with some of the stevedores. It was a bit of an emotional and heated discussion. But, I asked several of the stevedores, if you talk about redundancy how many of you would like to sever your employment with the Port of Belize and then take your redundancy payment? If people come forward and ask for voluntary redundancy, then maybe we will consider that. We have a lot of stevedores. We have a lot of reserve and stevedores waiting. We have a lot of people waiting to become stevedores. So, we can have that discussion. But, the stevedores do not want to be made redundant. They want to continue working with the Port of Belize.”