The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

MORE than 100 hotel workers stormed the grounds of Prime Minister Perry Christie’s office demanding answers, claiming their employment with Wyndham Nassau Resort was terminated yesterday without notice.

The hotel’s employees claimed they were called into a meeting after reporting for work and told that 130 of them were to be made redundant immediately. The majority of them have been employed with the Cable Beach hotel for more than 10 years.

Not long after the group of devastated employees were fired they marched from the Wyndham to the Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield Centre – the Office of the Prime Minister where they were not allowed to enter the building.

Instead several police officers formed a human chain at times using force on workers who insisted on meeting with Mr Christie.

While the termination came as a surprise to the workers, Labour Minister Shane Gibson told them that he had known of the hotel’s plans since Tuesday. But the Minister insisted that he had advised hotel officials to meet with the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) and abide by the provisions of an existing industrial agreement.

“Let me just be clear to everybody,” Mr Gibson said. “I got a call on Tuesday of this week where management at the Wyndham indicated that they intended to make some persons redundant at the Wyndham Hotel.

“When they called me on Tuesday I asked them, ‘Did you contact the union?’ They said no, I said well you have to contact the union.”

He said he was later assured that the hotel would meet with the union, but those plans never materialised.

The resort, through a press statement, said the firings came as a result of a restructuring exercise. However, The Big T understands that many of the employees were not performing at satisfactory levels which had cost the Wyndham millions in profits each year.

“Various factors,” the statement said, “have impacted the resorts’ ability to operate in an efficient and profitable manner, leading to the need for substantial cutbacks. The reorganization, in addition to a more robust training and performance standards programme, is designed to improve operations and overall guest satisfaction.”

Calling the mass termination an act of complete disrespect, President of the BHCAWU Nicole Martin claimed that the hotel was also breaking the laws of the Bahamas.

“I never got from the Prime Minister,” Ms Martin said, “that I was restricted from entering the office of Prime Minister or any other government complex.

“In the Bahamas money is king, but without the manpower your material cannot work, you need the manpower. We need to have respect for workers restored because it feels like we are being exploited from the government.

“If an employer could come here and say to you as much as you don’t want unemployment to drop we have to make a business decision. There has to be something wrong with that.”

After almost an hour of protesting, 20 union officials were allowed to see Mr Christie. Members of the press were not allowed to attend the meeting.

Ms Martin later informed reporters that the Prime Minister had no knowledge of what had taken place or what could have prompted the hotel to act in such a way.

Mr Christie asked the group to return at 3:30pm yesterday to give him time to speak with hotel officials, Ms Martin said.

When The Big T returned at that time, we were told that the meeting had been postponed until 5pm. At 6pm union officials said they were still waiting to meet with the Prime Minister. Up to press time, the union had yet to speak with Mr Christie.