PBL Welcomes Discussions With Stevedores

And while Belizeans can rest at ease knowing the local market is at no immediate risk to international events, the supply chain could be interrupted by local factors. Today, Port of Belize Limited entered into negotiations with its stevedores over a sugar redundancy package. As was reported before, stevedores are requesting compensation for the income lost with the departure of ASR/BSI’s sugar ships to Big Creek Port. CEO Lane says he is hoping for peaceful negotiations.

Andy Lane

Andy Lane, CEO, PBL

“We are looking forward to having this meeting. We have tried to arrange it for the last couple of weeks. And, the union hasn’t been available for a number of reasons. I am pleased that at least we can go ahead and start these discussions now. I don’t know how far we can get towards an agreement today. In terms of compensation, we ourselves do not have compensation. We do not have that from BSI. We will not have it, do not have it, we will not get it from the government. There are a number of things we will do in terms of the way we are organized,  to make the work of the stevedores more regular, to help them a little bit with their cash flow. Certainly there are things we can look at. But there is no big pile of cash on the table to be distributed out, and that is not necessarily the same perception shared by the union or the stevedores. So we will have to go through these very difficult discussions. I hope they will remain objective and people will be pragmatic. I pray for peace because we don’t want to have any disruptions to the supply chains. That is a greater risk that what I talked about before, in terms of port congestions.”