Last week, we showed you the stevedores who said that they weren't satisfied with the President of their Union, Antonio Gonzalez. They told us that he wasn't doing a good job negotiating their position with the receivers of the Port of Belize.
We showed you Gonzalez's response, who said that he thinks it healthy that he is criticized by the membership of the Christian Workers Union.
Well, the Stevedores are going a step further, they want him to retire by the end of the week, because according to them, he hasn't only crippled their negotiations with PBL, he has weakened the CWU during his tenure.
So, they're trying to force him, and the Secretary, James McFoy, out with a laundry list of complaints, which they formally presented to them last week, where they supposedly violated the constitution of the CWU.
Those complaints are yet to be proven, but one of them is about finances. They say that he hasn't had an audit done on the CWU in years, and more than that, Gonzalez has not met the financial commitments to the Government, and the umbrella union organization, the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, NTCUB.
Today, 7News contacted the president of the NTUCB, Dylan Reneau, and he confirmed to us that the CWU has been indefinitely suspended because they have not been meeting their obligations to the umbrella union.
According to him, they have not paid their dues to the NTUCB, and they have not been attending important meetings as members.
He added that he has received complaints from the members of the CWU who say that Gonzalez has not organized an Annual General Meeting.
That's one of the complaints which stevedore spokesperson Raymond Rivers explained to us yesterday:
Ramond Rivers - Spokesperson, Stevedores
"They haven't paid the big union any money over ten years and they sent him letters that if he doesn't start to pay then the union won't be any good. So we found this out and he promised us that he will resign this week so all the entities under CWU will need to get together and get this union strong again."
Daniel Ortiz
"Tell us when did you guys discover this and do you guys have actual documented proof that he hasn't been performing his duties?"
Ramond Rivers
"We have the constitution of the Christian Worker's Union and this has all the laws and rules of the constitution. The CWU and the president failed to file an anual return to the Registry and the National tripartite body for quite a number of years - this is violation of section 15 of Chapter 304 of Belize's law."
Daniel Ortiz
"Does this cripple CWU?"
Ramond Rivers
"The union sent us a lot of letters that we aren't paying but what it does it took away the power from Mr. Gonzalez going into a meeting especially with the Port of Belize because at the end of the day when he goes in there - he doesn't do any talking, it's the Stevedores Committee. This week here we are getting everyone from each entity under the CWU like the First Caribbean Bank and all the different entities, we will have a ad-hop committee which will take over the representation of the union until we have things done which he has never done in his life yet. Let me just point out one and two little things to you - 'article 6 of the CWU Constitution called for the creation and the election of a bi-annual council and this council has the power to appoint, recommend and approve any business under union which will improve service and condition of the union and its members.' Members have not had anything of a bi-annual council and have not been invited to any bi-annual council meeting in all the years, no Stevedores and I've been on that committee over 25 years and they don't respect anybody. Mr. Gonzalez, even a full financial report - none of that has happened, this man doesn't have any accountability."
So, 7News made numerous attempts to contact Antonio Gonzalez on this issue today, but he didn't respond to us.
He has responded to the list of complaints from the Stevedores with a formal letter. We will explore that letter tomorrow.
