And today the PM also confirmed that the majority of the sugar will be heading to Big Creek. But he added that in March of last year, PBL and CWU had signed a CBA in which they agreed that they would come up with compensation packages for when - not if - this occurred.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"BSI has informed both the stevedores and certainly for sure it has informed Port of Belize that they will be shipping. There are two types of sugar that's being exported; sugar that's exported on ship and sugar that's exported by bags and from what I understand presently about 65% of the sugar is going to send out through ships and so that part is going to be done in port down south. The other 35% is what they put in hundred-pound bags and that's going to be shipped by containers loads. So that is going to be shipped through Port of Belize. So the stevedores are still going to get some monies from that, but obviously it's not going to be as lucrative as the one when you go by ships. The sugar is going to be divided, a portion is going to go to Big Creek and a portion to the Port of Belize. I've been informed by BSI that by next year bag sugar is going to be increase to about 50%, that is going to be shipped, because you get a better price on that than the sugar that is just shipped by bulk. The bag sugar is going to be done through the Port of Belize."
"In March of last year, the Port of Belize and the Christian Workers Union signed a collective bargaining agreement and in that agreement they said that they were going to address several issues; the first issues, they said of compensation, because of sugar going down south. So in effect both Port of Belize and the Christian Workers Union were already coming to the realization that because the Port of Belize have not made any investments in the port that the sugar industry has to find a more efficient way of loading the sugar. Loading sugar at the Port of Belize here in Belize City takes them over 3 weeks. Loading that same amount of sugar in the Big Creek Port it takes them 3 days. So there is going to be massive savings for the industry, massive savings for the over 5,000 came farmers. So they had already come to that realization, so in that agreement they signed they are going to talk about compensation for the losing of the sugar business."
He also told us that it is really the cane farmers who suffer most when CWU and PBL can't see eye to eye.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It's unfortunate what is taking place at Port of Belize, because at the end of the day who is paying for this is not the stevedores, not the Christian Workers Union, it's not the Port of Belize - it is the Belize Sugar Industries and the cane farmers. As it is, they have been loading this ship and I think they have loaded less than 20% of what they should put in the ship and it has already cost the sugar industry over two hundred thousand dollars, that we cane farmers, I am also a cane farmer, will be paying. It's not going to cost the stevedores, it's not going to cost the CWU nor the Port of Belize and BSI felt that the only way they can get this loaded is to take it down south. They had no other option."
"But it is unfortunate what is taking place whereby Port of Belize and the Christian Workers Union can't come around the table to settle their differences. We have asked the attorney general's ministry to look at all the agreements, because supposedly we are being told that it is more than just one agreement and remember what was signed in 2006 is a memorandum of agreement. As we are told its not necessarily binding. It's just an undertaking that Toledo Enterprise Limited took, but I am no attorney, so you can't hold me to that, but it seems that it's just an undertaking that is said. But before we could talk about implementation of anything, we believe that now it is important for us to take a comprehensive look about all the agreements. Supposedly there were other agreements that were signed."
