The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

WHILE the BEC union has taken on an apologetic tone over recent industrial action, Labour Minister Shane Gibson has made it clear that the workers will face repercussions for their standoff with officials.

Management at BEC, Mr Gibson said, will ensure that employees who did not work, but instead protested for three days at the Corporation’s main offices on Baillou Hill Road and then outside of the SuperClubs Breezes resort will see a pay cut.

He was speaking outside the Cabinet office.

“When I was president of the BCPOU,” he said, “and I took members out on a strike or had them stop work, they understood that no work (was) no pay.

“Nobody could expect not to work and then to be paid. It’s like asking you to work and then not paying you.

“The same way that management accounts for them when they show up and pay them, I’m sure at any given time if a worker doesn’t show up for work and does not call in sick, then they expect not to be paid. That is the sacrifice that you make for proving your point.

The Bahamas Electricity Workers Union (BEWU) began demonstrating last week Tuesday on the grounds that two of its union members had been fired.

However, it later became evident that the union’s true grievance had to do with BEC Board Chairman Leslie Miller’s management skills. The union eventually called on Prime Minister Perry Christie to fire Mr Miller. Its president, Stephano Greene later described Mr Miller as a tyrant and “a dog needing a leash.”

Mr Green then retracted the statements and apologised to both the Prime Minister and Mr Miller claiming that he did not want to disrespect anyone.

Regarding the same kind of tension in the future, Mr Gibson said he was in hopes that it would not continue.

“I would hope that calmer heads would prevail and that at the end of the day, BEC would return to a level of normalcy. I would hate to think that they would continue to have these types of tension.”

Attempts to contact Mr Greene on the government’s position were not successful.