Christian Workers Union Angered by Legal Challenges

The Christian Workers Union says they are angry about the legal actions being taken by the Port of Belize Limited against the Union and its members. P.B.L. has filed a Supreme Court application seeking damages to the tune of one million dollars following the stevedore strike in January. The industrial action shut down the port for days and caused some importers to divert their containers to Big Creek. More recently, P.B.L. filed an application for an injunction to stop the one point five million dollars ex gratia payment from the Government of Belize to stevedores for damages G.O.B. says they suffered when the port was privatized back in the early two thousands. The government went ahead and made that payment to the C.W.U. account on Wednesday, even before the application had been heard. Despite getting that money, today the C.W.U. President, Mose Hyde expressed outrage at the legal challenges.

Evan “Mose” Hyde

Evan “Mose” Hyde, President, Christian Workers Union

“We feel that we are being encircled by very serious level operations. We, in our view, committed ourselves to finding path ways going forward that would create stability in the relationship between ourselves, meaning the stevedores and P.B.L. We publicly came and declared that. In conversations with P.B.L. and its receivership we have stated that. To the government, we have stated that. But, what we have experienced over the past couple of weeks are things indicating to us that it is not being reciprocated. It is important for us to come to you the stakeholders, to put it out there in the open. We have among ourselves assessed the situation. The recent history since signing the C.B.A. being a very critical part of our analysis because when we though signing the C.B.A. in August of 2020 that it would usher in some kind of stability, unbeknown to us, almost at the same time our financial realities were being amputated. So, we are very guarded right now. Our membership feels angry. Our negotiation team feels targeted. And, Christian Workers Union feels as if though there is a mission to get it.  So we come to the people of Belize to put that case to put that reality on the table.”