The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

UNIONISED nurses throughout the Bahamas will head to the polls later this month to elect a new group of executives, MP and Bahamas Nurses Union president Cleola Hamilton confirmed yesterday.

Since being elected to the House of Assembly and announcing that she was still chief of the BNU, as well as Trade Union Congress (TUC) vice president, Ms Hamilton has been criticised for her unwillingness to relinquish either of what many see as conflicting roles.

However the South Beach representative said the ball will begin rolling tonight when nominations take place. Ms Hamilton is not offering herself for another term.

“In January,” she said, “I would have written to the Department of Labour and requested a poll to be done.

“We have a date for the 18th and my name will not be on the ballot.

“I would note though that the decision was not because of the FNM or anyone calling for me to resign, I just felt like it was time to move forward.”

Political pundits and umbrella union executives have for months been calling for Ms Hamilton’s resignation from either or both positions, saying it is impossible to serve two masters.

She countered their complaints by saying she sees nothing wrong with her holding both posts as it allows her to fight for the union and the government.

“I have said this before and I will say it again, I don’t see where there is a conflict of interest.

“And I have long stopped answering to this ridiculous idea that there is a problem,” Ms Hamilton said.

On Wednesday night, FNM leader Dr Hubert Minnis claimed that in the midst of a group of nurses’ threats to take industrial action over money owed to them by the government, Ms Hamilton was absent. And when she did emerge, she was passive, humble and meek, Dr Minnis 
said.

“Her silent-as-a-church mouse behaviour,” he said, “is a complete opposite of the vocal, adversarial and irrational behaviour she demonstrated when the FNM was in office.”

“Then, she was clearly singing for her PLP supper. We wonder now whether the Nurses Union was only being used to propel her political career.”

National Congress of Trade Unions Bahamas President Jennifer Isaacs-Dotson and a group of her officers also concluded that it was best for Ms Hamilton to step down.

Mrs Isaacs-Dotson said while the matter was not rooted in legality, it comes down to morality.

She said Ms Hamilton’s determination to serve as an MP and union executive sent a message, and she feared others would follow in her footsteps.