The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net UNION members have warned BTC there will be industrial action unless it fulfils its promises over contract negotiations. The union is unhappy that BTC has not completed negotiations since its sale to Cable and Wireless Communications last April, and members of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union staged a demonstration outside BTC headquarters on John F Kennedy Drive yesterday afternoon. BCPOU president Bernard Evans urged BTC to keep its promise over contract negotiations or "else there will be more demonstrations to come". Mr Evans said: "Our current industrial agreement expired in September 2010. The union was told in late 2009 to wait on renewing the contract pending the potential sale of BTC." The union said that BTC "is well positioned financially to grant our requests, which we might add, falls well within contracts awarded to us in the past". Mr Evans said the company is expected to surpass all initial projections concerning revenue. The union said the company had cut staff by 300 and reduced the percentage of salary towards the staff pension plan, but added that CWC had seen a $20 million increase in profits by September of last year. The new owners were also awarded 60% of net profit, despite the signed agreement between the company and government to split profit 51:49. Mr Evans and union members promised industrial action until the contract negotiations are dealt with. In response to yesterday's action, BTC CEO Geoff Houston reiterated the company's ambition concerning the organisation and its staff, which is to shape an agreement "that is customer and performance driven, and anchored by a market-leading employee proposition". He said: "The discussions we have been having with our union partners have always been around these themes. So my hope is that while we may differ on the specifics of some parts of the agreement, we all manage to keep in our sights these principles which are critical to succeed against agile and aggressive competition now and in the near future." The CEO noted that management will continue to negotiate in good faith and do all it can to keep the communications open and up front. He concluded: "All BTC stakeholders must accept the reality that the company must be fundamentally changed if it is to compete successfully."