Tonight a three year old labour dispute between the Christian Workers Union and the Port of Belize management is back on the front burner. The CWU claims that since Port of Belize took over the port in late 2004 - the new management has been refusing to adhere to the collective bargaining agreement that was signed between Waterfront Workers Association and the shipping agents. The Labour Department had been brought in to mediate but the CWU says they aren’t doing enough which is why they took their protest to the street. 7News was there.
Keith SwiftReporting,
The roughly 20 stevedores picketed outside the Labour Department’s office on Albert Street this morning. CWU President Antonio Gonzales says it wasn’t a show of strength, this morning’s picket was a show of frustration.
Antonio Gonzales, President – CWU
“This is a mild mannered protest today but this is the first phase. We need to express our frustration, dissatisfaction that we are tired of this. We want things done in the proper way. Let us put a closure to some of these issues.”
On the top of the list of those issues is the dispute between Port of Belize management and the stevedores over the collective bargaining agreement. Gonzales wants the Labour Department to do its job.
Antonio Gonzales,
“Since the Port is saying that they don’t look at the agreement as being enforced, they change terms and conditions of staff and stevedores
as they please.”
Keith Swift,
And how has it affected them in a bad way?
Antonio Gonzales,
“Well as I mentioned that they change working hours, they change the gang composition, they don’t take the terms and conditions as per that collective bargaining agreement. So they are saying that agreement is not enforced and the union is saying that agreement is in force. But we went through conciliation through the Ministry of Labour and they are prolonging the issue and at the same time the Port is implementing new measures; new terms and new conditions. So today we need to express our dismay and dissatisfaction on the whole process.
What we see is the employers, at this stage in general, some of the issues that we have before the Ministry of Labour, some of the employers totally disregard the offices of the Labour Commissioner, totally ignore the request by the Labour Commissioner to have meetings to discuss these issues and put a closure to these issues. So in a way they are disrespecting not only the union, the stevedores, the staff at Port and other workers but they totally disrespect the offices of Labour Commissioner.”
And that’s why these workers who braved the morning sun say they won’t back down.
Wilfred Dennison, Stevedore
“The Port doesn’t come with partnership. They are just doing it because they just want to do whatever they want. If they wake up and think about stevedores, oh the stevedores are making too much money, they can jump up and say they are going to do this against the stevedores and we must accept it or else they will call somebody else to do the work. I want them to understand that whenever they think they are going to call another gang to work our work, it is going to be violent on the spot.”
There are about 200 stevedores. We were unable to get comment from Port of Belize. As for the Labour Commissioner Ivan Williams, we were also unable to reach him for comment. We were told he was in all day meeting. The Christian Workers’ Union did however leave a letter for him following this morning’s protest.
