And caught in the middle of all this is the customer, BSI - which has a sugar ship waiting to be loaded up with seven thousand tons of sugar.
Yesterday the leadership of the Christian Workers union accused BSI and the Port of being the ones who stopped work on the ship. Today BSI's marketing officer Damian Gough explained that the captain of the Hanna C had no choice.
Here are his remarks:..
Damian Gough, Marketing Officer - BSI
"About 10 o' clock Tuesday morning the captain of the ship requested a work stoppage in light of a go-slow action that was being implemented by the CWU stevedore membership, so from Tuesday morning no loading has been taking place. The vessel's hatches remain close and we are basically on standby waiting to see what the next move will be."
Antonio Gonzalez - President, CWU
"Right now there is no go-slow, right now there is a stoppage. Based on information and based on what we discussed today it was through BSI and Port that they shut down the ship on Tuesday."
Damian Gough, Marketing Officer - BSI
"That was an inaccurate statement by the CWU to make. The fact of the matter is that these ships are multi-million dollar investments for their owners. The parts for the crane and equipment and so on are very expensive and they are delicate. If, in this case he was dis-satisfied with the actions being taken by the stevedores and reported to me that the intentional slowing of work could cause potential damages to his crane equipment by intentional revving; it's like when you are in first gear and you are riding your clutch because you need to slow down - it could cause potential damage to the crane and vessel. He felt that it was in his best interest as custodian of the vessel to shut down the loading and request a stoppage."
Tonight work has resumed on the Hanna C and - barring any further delay - it is expected to continue until around mid-July. The ship has a capacity of 9500 tonnes.
