The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A trade union leader yesterday said Cable Bahamas employees had agreed to take a strike vote, following Friday’s ‘sick out’ and increasing frustration over the company’s failure to conclude an industrial agreement.

Bernard Evans, the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union’s (BCPOU) president, accused the BISX-listed communications provider of being “very skilful” at delaying any effort to start industrial agreement negotiations between the two sides.

He said the BCPOU had been attempting to “get a union into Cable Bahamas for 20 years”, but implied that neither he nor his executives had played any role in Friday’s ‘sick out’ at the company.

Employees were said to have called in sick to protest at the slow pace of industrial agreement negotiations with the BCPOU, and Mr Evans said the union’s members decided on the same day to take a strike vote.

But David Burrows, Cable Bahamas’ head of marketing, dismissed Friday’s so-called sick-out as having “zero impact” on the BISX-listed company’s operations.

“It was such a low call in,” Mr Burrows told Tribune Business. “There were a few people that called in sick, but if we were to do the totals, it was less than half of 1 per cent of staff.

“It was so minimal that it had zero impact on operations. The impact was minimal to none, really.”

Mr Burrows said the workplace environment, and relations between Cable Bahamas staff and their employer, were not conducive to trade union representation.

“The reality is that if you are a good employer, like Cable Bahamas is, it doesn’t make it the environment that’s required,” he added.

“That’s one of the reasons why there was so little interest. Cable Bahamas is a good employer.”

Mr Burrows indicated that there were more important issues for Cable Bahamas to deal with than negotiate with the BCPOU, such as its application for a 27 per cent increase in the price of its basic pay-TV package and bid to become this nation’s second cellular operator.

He added that any progress on the BCPOU’s industrial agreement demand depended on the union, as Cable Bahamas was waiting for it to submit a proposal.

However, Mr Evans yesterday contradicted this by telling Tribune Business that the union had done just that in October/November last year. He said it was now waiting on Cable Bahamas to submit a counter-proposal to industrial agreement talks can start.

The BCPOU has been trying to conclude an industrial agreement with Cable Bahamas for the latter’s non-managerial staff for years, the Supreme Court having ordered the company to recognise it as the bargaining agent.

The issue has occasionally been vented by Mr Evans and the union in public, as he last summer threatened that Cable Bahamas would be ‘shut down’ for failing to negotiate with the union - an event that never happened.

The post-privatisation downsizing at the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), and previous lay-offs at ZNS, have likely made the BCPOU eager to gain new members - and replace those it has lost - especially with the former company likely to be further impacted by cellular liberalisation.

While acknowledging that he had heard of Friday’s ‘sick out’, Mr Evans said he had been unable to “verify the details” and “I couldn’t get the full picture”.

“I know a number of them did it,” he added, referring to Cable Bahamas staff members who participated in the ‘sick out’.

Mr Evans said he updated the workers on the progress, or lack of it, with Cable Bahamas on an industrial agreement several weeks ago.

“Back in October/beginning of November I gave them [Cable Bahamas] a proposal to begin contract negotiations,” the BCPOU president told Tribune Business.

“We are awaiting a counter-proposal so we can begin negotiations. It hasn’t been forthcoming. They claim they’re working on it.”

Alleging that Cable Bahamas was a ‘past master’ at stalling industrial talks, Mr Evans added: “We’ve been at this before. We’ve been trying to get a union into Cable Bahamas for 20 years, but they’re very skilful at delaying.

“They’ve done everything within the law to say they are complying, but every factor they can use to delay coming to the table, they’ve used.

“We’re going to file for a strike vote. The employees are disheartened. It’s very disheartening for them.”

Mr Evans expressed hope that a strike vote could be avoided, adding that the BCPOU and its members were now just awaiting a date for when it would take place.

“It’s unfortunate, but the members are going to do what they have to do. Cable Bahamas has been around for a while, and the least they could do is have a relationship with the staff,” Mr Evans said.

He added that Cable Bahamas was adding new services, and increasing revenues and profits, but this was not translating into increased rewards for staff despite their growing responsibilities.

The BCPOU president said one Cable Bahamas staff member recalled how, upon joining the company, she was able to enjoy lunches with her son who was then a student at R. M. Bailey.

Her son, Mr Evans added, was now a 32 year-old father of two, showing how long staff had been waiting for an industrial agreement.