The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Customs, Immigration and Allied Workers Union (BCIAWU) is awaiting the certification of its strike vote, executive vice-president Sloane Smith recently told Tribune Business. Labour Minister Dion Foulkes, meanwhile, said he was allowing a "cooling-off period", in the hope both sides could resolve their issues. He said: "This is now the cooling-off period, which is customary in all strike actions. Traditionally what we do is we allow a cooling-off period for the parties to come together and see if they can bring a resolution to the issues before the strike vote is certified. "We will allow a reasonable period of time for the parties to come together and talk, which is the management of Customs and Immigration, along with the union representatives. If that is unsuccessful, I will certify the strike vote and then we will see to what extent we can have further talks." Sloane Smith, executive vice-president of the union, told Tribune Business it had made repeated attempts to reach the minister regarding certification of its strike vote taken two weeks ago. Mr Smith said: "We are waiting on the minister; he has to sign off on that certificate. This is what the people want and we go with that. We have been advised that there should be some solution with regards to the signing of the document and getting it to us, so we are simply waiting on that." Mr Smith said any action taken by the union would be "measured. Any action taken will be measured. We are not eager to do things. Having exhausted all of the avenues thus far, that's where our efforts took us."