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But the President of the CWU says it's not a private matter; he's willing to discuss publicly the politics of the perception that stevedores are overpaid.
Jules Vasquez
"One of the subtexts to all this, one of the things that PBL has consistently whispered, "ask them man, how much money they make for the hours they work" because it is viewed as obscene that black men from the Southside, from the poor neighbourhoods of the Southside without Bachelor's and Master's and Phd's should be earning more than a living wage, it is, it is seen that, this is how some people see it, they are obscene wages, is what makes the situation so impossible, how would you respond?"
Mose Hyde, President, CWU
"Obviously, the brothers are there and they could tell you that. Still, I will tell you a lot of that is really and honestly its origins of that can be traced to colonial slave-owning days. I will say that I am very, I am very proud that I was part of a family that I viewed to be quintessentially anti-slavery. The history of stevedores and what they have achieved acting collectively is about "we will not be slaves, we will not get slave rates and we will not be treated as though we are second-class citizens." So, I think a lot can be learnt from what the Stevedores have achieved, a lot of people who maybe have other professional training can look at what these brothers have done and have basically consistently said they will not be submitted to any of your colonial inclinations, your imperial implications, tendencies, we are not going to be under slave master rule. That is why they have a living wage. That is why they earn what they earn. Because they have acted with intelligence, with collective purpose and struggle, and with courage. It has'nt been without struggle what they have maintained and earned for themselves and I salute them for it. They are not to be envied, they are not to be disliked for it. They are to be actually imitated. They are to be praised for what they have been able to get fot themselves."
And while some people say they are paid too much, one stevedore told us that their earnings have been drastically reduced since the sugar ships sailed south:
Bruce Diaz, Negotiating Team, Stevedores
"No sir. Humongous money sir we don't make that anymore. We don't make that anymore. The wages lost from the sugar taken away from us has cut our percentage far down. Up to now, the boat that we are talking about the BEC when we work that give and take, say, six weeks to a month and change, you divide 1200 in that. You know it's like we are working by the street side with the workers chopping the grass."
"It has gone. It's not like first when you ship man going home with $5,000 today and $10,000 tomorrow. That is not there. So the public have the idea that it's there it's not there. And the lost wages of the sugar you have some men who died and will never see it, some who retired.
