But, while the union must now lawyer up to defend against what could be a very costly lawsuit, the President made it clear that the flare-up last month at the Port of Belize could have been even worse.
On January 21, the government made a decision to send in the Belize Defense Force to pick up the slack at the Port, during the strike. In a historic move, soldiers were basically substituted for the stevedores so that the unloading of ships could resume since port cargo operations are an essential service in the country.
Here's how the CWU President explained that this decision nearly caused a dangerous escalation - averted only by distress calls he made to senior cabinet ministers, including his brother:
Evan "Mose" Hyde - President, CWU
"That was definitely a very volatile moment. Again, I don't know that the public is completely sensitized to what could have happened. Trust me, we called immediately to say, listen, what are we going to have here? Is this going to be a bloodbath? It's one thing to bring the security forces to protect the entity, to keep order, and to keep the peace. But, to bring the state's security force to come and unload ships, to break the action of stevedores, to use, essentially, BDF as scabs, is unimaginably dumb."
Jules Vasquez
"Yes, it is literally like lighting a match in a pool of gas."
Evan "Mose" Hyde
"I can publicly say that it's one of those times when I literally give thanks that this is one of the times when I guess it's good to have somebody who's high up to call."
Jules Vasquez
"You called your brother."
Evan "Mose" Hyde
"I had to call my brother and really say, this is what is happening. I am saying to the public that I called him. I immediately sent a message to Sister Yaya who was on the talk show substituting for me. I sent a message to Marisol to try to get the media out there because this is what is happening now. The fear was that the BDF — they did. They moved a container, and I believe that if we didn't have a really severe storm come in at the time, it would have been a really bad situation. Obviously, the intervention at the highest levels created a kind of stand-down, which allowed meetings to start to take place, which would happen on that Friday afternoon, into the Saturday, and then further into the Sunday."
We'll keep following the court case between the stevedores and the PBL.
