As we showed you on Monday night's newscast - there's major beef between the private Port Of Belize Limited and the Waterfront Workers. They staged a mini protest on Friday night when it was time to clear a ship. They say the Port Management is trying to interfere with the composition of their work gangs. Police had to be called to defuse the volatile situation - which in the end was worked out to the union's satisfaction.
But that was only a temporary truce and the Labor Commissioner intervened to settle the dispute. Today the Port Management, Executives of the Christian Workers Union and the Port management sat in a meeting for 7 hours to hammer out their differences.
We got an indication that things were going satisfactorily at about the sixth hour when two of the leaders of the stevedores came down to tell their membership that the management wasn't that bad after all:
Raymond Rivers Jr. - Stevedores
"I am telling you, the big man at the Port - understanding. The big man at Port, at the top, is all understanding. The man is very understanding. They just made us afraid of those men. Those men negotiated so easily, and we talked to the people from Port so easy, we couldn't believe it."
Winfield Dennison - Stevedores
"Now we know that when we go to negotiation, it will be an easier negotiation with these people because they understand. They came to the conclusion to see where stevedores are, and stand for what is right."
Raymond Rivers Jr.
"So we are working in good faith with Port now, and we will respect each other. When these men come out here, we don't want to hear A or B. I don't care if you don't want to say good evening - if you don't want to say good evening, that's about the best thing to do, but let us work in good faith, because we will get everything."
And with that rare spirit of goodwill - they moved swiftly toward a joint press release - signed by all 11 persons who took part in the meeting.
The joint press release outlines the issues of contention - which number eight - and set forth four agreements going forward - principally that negotiations towards a new collective bargaining agreement begin on July 13th.
Their last collective agreement expired in 2004 - and all sides agreed that even hammering out a joint press release is an encouraging accomplishment...
Ivan Williams - Labour Commissioner
"So today, those issues were raised in the presence of the Labour department, and we were able to hear exactly what those issues are, and through my office, we were able to engage the parties to discuss open and frankly, their views, and to seek a consensus, or a win-win situation on each of the items. This resulted in a signing of a joint press release, on the main issues, and several other sub-issues, that were of pressing importance to the parties, with a view that what really needs to happen is for the parties to negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement."
Antonio Gonzalez - President, CWU
"So we finally got an understanding agreement, one or two major issues, and in particular the composition of the various gangs, stevedore gangs, who load and unload vessels. I think we made a breakthrough on that, and as such, we are, as a said, we appreciate very much the position of the Commissioner as being a third- party here, just having both parties reach some kind of agreement today, and he has accomplished that today."
Raineldo Guerrero - CEO, Port of Belize
"It cemented the ground for us to be able to move forward, because our positions were extremely far apart, even prior to negotiations. If you take it to account that an MOU was signed in December of 2004, and we are talking June 2011, and we haven't even started to negotiate, right. It tells you how polarized this thing is; we are poles apart. Having bridge those, it set the path now, to enter into negotiations, which we in fact we hope will lead to a Collective Bargaining Agreement that is a win-win situation for all. In summary, this, in fact, just paves the way for us to move forward, and it took us 6 years and a half to reach at a document that outlines, intially, how we are going to move forward. I do hope that we don't spend the next 6 years until we sign the agreement."
As we noted, negotiations on that new collective bargaining agreement begin in two weeks.
