The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE Trade Union Congress will resume negotiations with the government at 9am today with a view to bring closure to long-standing issues that sparked a three-day strike last week, The Tribune understands.

According to officials, who declined to speak on the record for fear of compromising progress already made between the union and the government, meetings held on Friday and Saturday yielded “great success”.

Long-standing labour issues in several of the more than 20 unions represented by the TUC sparked a strike in New Providence and Grand Bahama last week. Public healthcare facilities experienced substantial problems due to the strike because nurses in some cases abruptly stopped caring for patients. It was reported that government facilities were forced to turn some people away on Friday.

According to a well-placed source, those nurses who walked off the job will face “substantial” pay cuts.

“The position of the minister has been from day one that if you don’t work, you don’t get paid,” said the source. “We got reports that in several cases, patients who were in the process of receiving care, were left by nurses. In other situations nurses who were to report to work at certain times were called and told not to come while others were turned away once they did come in.

“We are sure that they are aware of the consequences to come for their actions that government officials believe was done during an illegal strike.”

TUC officials are expected to return to the Supreme Court today over an application filed last week to have an injunction, which prevents its members from further industrial action, lifted.

The Supreme Court issued an injunction on behalf of the government on Wednesday ordering members of the Bahamas Nurses Union, the Bahamas Customs and Immigration Allied Workers Union and the Bahamas Educators Managerial Union to abandon their national strike and return to work “forthwith” or risk being in contempt of court.