By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Staff Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
BEC chairman Leslie Miller yesterday charged he was ready for “war” with the union to exact a new industrial agreement in line with the corporation’s economic reality.
Mr Miller said the current contract with workers will have to be “scrapped” entirely as the corporation files a counter claim in the ongoing legal dispute with the Bahamas Electricity Workers Union (BEWU) over rostering.
Mr Miller said: “We must make some paradigm shifts in BEC, that change must come. Your lights may be off for some time but that war probably has to start more sooner than later to give us a better level playing field so that people cannot believe that they can dictate what a country does to less than a 1,000 people.
He said: “We cannot allow one group of people to hold us hostage and put guns to our heads and tell us if you don’t give me what I want, even though its unreasonable, I will get up and I will shut your light off. Well then shut the damn light off let’s go to war.”
BEC union has to wake up to the real work, this is not BEC 30 years ago, the world has changed. The economic crisis that faced every country on this planet is different. Wake up to the new reality that what you could get before, you can’t get no more. It does not exist. The government is not going to put another penny into BEC to pay people's salaries who are already highly overpaid. How much more you want?”
Mr Miller said the corporation would continue with rostering, which has cut down on overtime costs and other management issues.
Mr Miller said: “[Union] can take us to court that is their right. I’ve already given then all the financial statements on BEC they appreciate the fact that BEC is probably going to lose an excess of $30 million. I ask the question if we’re losing money, how do you make a demand for something that does not exist?”
Mr Miller said: “That whole contract has to be scrapped, every facet of that contract has to be scrapped and start from scratch. The corporation cannot bear it anymore, the Bahamian people can’t bear it anymore, and I can say it now to each and every Bahamian that the cost of your electricity bill ties directly in with the salaries and other financial constraints that BEC faces on a daily basis. So it affects your lives in a direct way, so you have to be with us in realising that.”
Calls placed to Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) president Stephano Greene were unreturned last night.
Comments
B_I_D___ 11 years, 6 months ago
Wow...typos galore...you all still using those Bahamian proof readers instead of the expat ones on work permits?
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 6 months ago
My coworker just said to me that sabotage of key infrastructure in the US is referred to as terrorism. That's the stuff they lock you away in Guantinomo for...
My5Cents 11 years, 6 months ago
Staff so ungrateful..So much people out there would die to work shifts at BEC and they busy complaining...the more they have the less they appreciate
TalRussell 11 years, 6 months ago
To the hell with fight'in the "War On Crime?" What in the world could possibly be any more appealing to a thief, than running across a whole bunch of "Potcake" darkened business establishments or lights-out dwellings?.
Comrade "BEC Chairman "Potcake" Leslie likes to remind Bahamians of what it was like to be poor and have no electricity. I say good for you Chairman "Potcake," for go'in beyond the PLP's rhetoric. How can you fault such a gallant effort to bring about the equalization of the; done haves no electricity and have the soon nots to have no lights classes?
Amen!
http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2013…
aloethree 11 years, 6 months ago
Why should an Industrial conflict affect essential services of the General Public? Please resolve your own issues, without disrupting the Public service, they work hard to pay their bills which are already astronomically high.
Here is a suggestion, pay cuts, retirement maybe even making some position redundant for the already highly paid executives and administrators who cant make firm decisions, and give the union workers the correct scheduling, adequate and comfortable working conditions and tools and add more quality assurance to the service which you provide.
No Lights out War, do your jobs and keep it to yourselves, please.
bismark 11 years, 6 months ago
they don't want to work,fire them, nobody is indispensable lots of educated guys out there cant get a job they will be glad for the chance,i say fire all of them from the union man down,they are not interested in working,so I guess they don't want their jobs,if was a private firm they wouldn't have tried it
USAhelp 11 years, 6 months ago
Unions and the thugs control the government. Number houses creating issues to get the focus off of them. The writing iz on the wall wont miss it till its gone
C_MonMan 11 years, 6 months ago
What a mess. Last I heard Mr. Miller owed BEC in excess of $250K. At BEC the PLP has re-hired many of their supporters, to very senior management positions who were fired for performance related reasons and given full severance packages. They have been re-hired with full benefits and have been given an extended period to repay the severance they have already received. So Mr. Miller lead by example. It cannot be that every worker is a bad employee except if you are a PLP supporter. A politician should never be an executive chairman of a government corporation because their agenda will always be political rather than managerial.
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 6 months ago
I have heard many stories about Mr Miller, some of them not so nice. But the overarching theme among those stories is that he is not a tow the line PLP man, he is a Leslie Miller man much to the annoyance of some of his own party. He is brash by nature and not my favorite kind of personality, but I would have to see it to believe it that he supports troublemakers just because they are PLP.
I fully agree with your last statement, but hit the problem at the root. He is at BEC at the mercy of the Prime Minister and that is where (I think) the real managerial problem lies. Incompetent people have been appointed to key positions or competent people have had their staffs bloated with such incompetents to create a state of chaos in this country that I have never seen before.
Good managers assess, weed out and rebuild, assess weed out and rebuild. There is no assessment, no weeding out and no rebuilding going on anywhere. It's pile on, pile on and pile more on. He needs help and he needs to admit that he needs help. Competent help not the usual crew who show up on every consultative committee.
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