Last night our headline was about the urgent injunction the Port of Belize was seeking to stop the government from paying the stevedores 1.5 million dollars as a goodwill gesture.
Well, the government moved swiftly to out maneuver the Ashcroft Alliance and disbursed the payment today - before any urgent injection could be granted. And so tonight, the Christian Workers Union is - so to speak - sitting on a fat bank balance - after the Government made the payment of $1.5 Million to the CWU Stevedores account this afternoon.
That disbursement went out this afternoon - but this morning the PM was playing possum when the press spoke to him. We assume he pretended to be waiting on legal counsel while the counter to the Ashcroft Alliance was already in play:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister of Belize
"I haven't taken a hard look at it, that just happened yesterday and our attorney's have not sat own to advise me but my initial reaction is that it is unfortunate that PBL would take such a step to be able to prevent the stevedores to get a fund that we believe that was merited. It's something that's a part of trying to correct history and it's so that they can have access to these monies. The stevedores are not rich people, they need the money but at the same time we have to be appealing also to the stevedores to be able to sit down and work out an agreement with PBL in providing increasing deficiencies within the port of Belize because when we're not efficient then all of us, it costs all of us."
Reporter (Isani):
"But the Port is saying that during that intervening time they've lost a million dollars then wouldn't it be fair for them to see how they can cover that?"
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister of Belize
"I'm sure that there are other ways how they could find to recover it and not on the backs of the stevedores."
