Tomorrow waterfront workers plan to keep applying pressure and will once again picket in front of the offices of the Port of Belize.
This comes as government's negotiator Assad Shoman is trying to mediate a truce between the Port of Belize, stevedores, and the Christian Worker's Union. A preliminary memorandum of understanding between the Port of Belize and the union has been drafted however it has to be approved by the membership before it is signed. And while all this happens, today Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow accepted an invitation from the Christian worker's union to weigh in on the dispute. 7NEWS was there and here's how it went.
Keith SwiftReporting,
Today Senior Counsel Dean Barrow faced a room packed with angst-filled and disgruntled stevedores who asked for the benefit of free advice from one of the leading lights of Belize’s legal profession.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
[Addressing Meeting] “Apart from any particular statute which the government should have passed, generally and legally on your side.”
But Barrow was also there as a politician, the Leader of the Opposition UDP.
Stevedore,
“He is avoiding us period. He doesn’t want to deal with us.”
Dean Barrow,
“You are giving me a bucko question. Remember I am a politician and I am trying to take away this man’s job.”
Keith Swift,
Is you involvement here more political than it is legal?
Dean Barrow,
“Absolutely because the union and the workers already have a retained attorney who is Mr. Wilfred Elrington. I know a lot of the stevedores personally and I believe that’s why they felt they wanted to hear from me. I do offer my considered legal opinion but I make no apologies for the fact I am here primarily as a politician who has an interest in seeing that this matter be sorted out for the good of the workers but also for the good of the larger community.”
And with that tone set, this morning Barrow minced no words characterizing the intended actions of Luke Espat and the Port of Belize as “morally wrong and outrageous” and throwing the ball in the hands of GOB.
Dean Barrow,
“Government has a responsibility to them. The Port of Belize Limited can stand on what it sees as the rights conferred on it by virtue of the vesting act; the law that was passed that transferred the ownership. The union and the stevedores has to say to the government that you dropped the ball when you passed that law because in that law you should have provided for a continuation of the current arrangement. But you have this backstop power because you have the Port Authority that is your agent, your servant. You need to instruct the Port Authority along particular lines. You need to ensure the current arrangements continue or that new arrangements are just as satisfactory to the workers as the current arrangements. Why not have Port of Belize Limited simply step into the shoe of the Water Front Employers Association and respect and honor the current agreement until it expires. I gather it only has a year to go and then you start you from fresh. But government has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that is done both in terms of protecting the workers and also to make sure that there is no disruption with respect to Port services. This is a militant crowd and none of us would want to see the volatility that presently obtains deteriorates until there is some kind of explosion.”
While Barrow is optimistic that a solution rests with GOB, the CWU is still cautiously optimistic following a meeting with government and Port officials.
James McFoy, CWU General Secretary
“They have moved from the point where they were not talking to the union and now they are talking to the union and we saw that as a positive step.”
But still a small one for the workers present this morning who are watching the clock tick down to Friday’s job application deadline.
The deadline for job applications to work for the Port is Friday but the CWU again asked their members not to apply. The CWU says those members who have applied will be "dealt with,” a cryptic warning that experience shows could mean anything or nothing at all.
Follow the Fight of the Stevedores Through our Archives:
. Water Front Workers Unite Against Private Port
. Luke Espat: Apply then Unionize