And there were unconfirmed reports this morning that the government was looking to compensate the stevedores with one million dollars. As you may recall - it is the then Musa administration in 2005 which signed an agreement guaranteeing the Port of Belize compensation in damages if a certain volume of shipping business went south to Big Creek.
However, that's not in play this time - and the current prime minister quickly shut down those rumors, saying that Minister Michel Chebat was meeting with the stevedores. But, as you heard yesterday, the CWU is not satisfied with the government just sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what will happen. They want GOB's intervention - similar to the situation with the caneros in the north - but the PM believes that the two sides should sit and arrive at their own compromise.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"What we're doing is the minister is meeting with the stevedores and talking to them and trying to find an end to the impasse and also then to try to find a long term solution to the issues that the stevedores have been facing for quite some time now."
Reporter:
"They are disappointed in you sir because they believe you would have intervene the way you did with BSI/ASR and the cane farmers up in the north."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well they never did call me to ask me if I can help. I have met with them before, I met with them in October and also in November. And then Minister Chebat has been dealing with them directly from the start, from last week, and so we have not stepped back, we have been working with them closely to try and find a compromise. But a compromise means not just your way but both sides have to give in to be able to find a compromise so the CWU has to find a way how they can come to some kind of compromise in some of their demands."
"It is affecting everyone because the cost of goods will go up because if the ships can't offload then by the time it does, the cost of those containers will go up and it will eventually reach to all of us so it's affecting everyone. We're just urging the CWU and the port to sit down and talk and not just point fingers at one another and to try to find a compromise so that we can move forward, but I do know what is happening now is that more and more ships will be going down south until this issue is resolved."
