Mose Says Labor Department is Sleeping on C.W.U. Issue

According to Hyde, aside from last Friday’s brief meeting with officials from the Ministry of Labor, government has remained dormant on the issue.  On Monday, a decision was taken to have Gang Five unload the MV-Aries, a cargo ship that called to port last week.  It was initially reported that vessel had sailed off, but as it turned out it moored in the vicinity of the Port Authority.

Evan ‘Mose’ Hyde

Evan ‘Mose’ Hyde, President, C.W.U.

“Imagine how we feel now, it is Tuesday. It is Tuesday and we still have not, in fact, not only have we not had any sense of when we are going to dialogue again, but there’s been nothing…Crickets…Crickets coming out of the regulatory body, crickets coming from the other side.  That’s where we find ourselves.  So we are very thankful, we have to be magnanimous and say, “Listen, a decision was made yesterday and they decided to allow Gang 5 to work the MV-Aries at least the fifteen hours…  That’s where we stand right now, but that does not resolve the elephant in the room because in a couple of days, by next week, we have the same vessel returning.  We have no idea what notice will be sent to us.  We have no idea of what the client is going to do because we are unable to say to the client anything other than we are going to work according to our CBA. We are not operating in a world of guarantees, we can’t give any guarantees.  The one thing we can say is that we are committed and, in fact, if PBL is willing, we don’t even have a problem in signing a joint letter to be given to the client to say that we are committed to negotiations to resolve this issue.”