When we left you on Friday, it was with the news that Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley, and CWU President, Audrey Matura-Shepherd were at an impasse on the labour dispute surrounding 20 of the 26 security officer whose jobs were hanging in the balance.
Bradley and Matura-Shepherd couldn't agree on much after marathon meetings on Thursday, where Bradley said that the CWU President's proposals were unreasonable, while Matura Shepherd claimed that Bradley's counter proposals weren't in the best interest of the employees.
Well, it seems that at a sit-down meeting this weekend where both sides didn't have their corresponding negotiating teams, cooler heads prevailed. Today, we spoke with Bradley before a midday meeting with Matura-Shepherd, and he told us that significant give and take happened this weekend. Here's how he explained it to us:
Mayor Darrell Bradley
"I had a very productive meeting with Audrey Matura over the weekend. We met for two and a half hours and we exchange views as it relates to how she sees the situation and how I see the situation. I think that we came to some common ground and common understanding and it is my hope that we will be able to resolve this matter at least by Wednesday. The situation is from our part that is a very difficult circumstance - the City Council has a bottom-line and we have to ensure that the city is run in a very efficient and fiscally responsible manner. Many public and private entities outsource security services. Its not an unusual thing and its also not part of our core function. Our core function is to build streets, to maintain parks, to maintain cemeteries and to deal with the welfare and governance of the city; traffic management, sanitation and those issues. Its not to provide security services. So this is where the issue of the privatization came about."
"In talking to Mrs. Matura I understand where she is coming from, I am very sympathetic to several of the positions that she has advance. I have tremendous respect for her as an attorney, as an advocate and these circumstance-representing unions. I reached to her and she likewise reached out to me and we came to an understanding that where both of us are we must could solve this together."
After that interview, Bradley and his team met with the CWU executives, and after that Audrey Matura-Shepherd updated the media. She too, was very optimistic that the impasse is over. She said that the proposals from both sides represents the best interest of each side:
Audrey Matura Shepherd, President - CWU
"I believe that what we have chiseled out for them are very positive measures and these are measures that will help them; it addresses some of their key concerns. I don't see them saying no to these measures because they are reasonable measures and they are measures that reflects some kind of compassion and consideration towards them beyond what the law had even required. That's good for them and they should additionally be happy because the labour department intervened, met with them today, spoke with then individually and we had our general secretary at those meetings to determine what is it that they were getting, what were the terms of their contracts. I know that the labour department since went into City Hall to review the records to see that everybody is on the right page, getting what they are entitled to. That is very good news."
"One of the good news too that late Friday into the night we got a letter from the labour commissioner saying that he was going to take 3 measures; one of them was that these officers would go to City Hall on Monday. The other one was that he was sending his people in to review what was their package under the law and the third one was to encourage City Hall to not retract those measures that we had already agree to before an impasse was declared."
After that interview, Matura-Shepherd told us that she would meet with her membership and report the progress to them. Via press release, the CWU announces that they believe an agreement can be signed by Wednesday.
