The Tribune

By NAATRIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The NASSAU Airport Development Company’s (NAD) top executive yesterday said it was “naturally concerned” over the potential for long passenger queues given the liklihood of industrial action by Customs & Immmigration staff, adding that airport officials had been given assurances from agency heads of adequate deployment.
 “There has been no disruption of service by Bahamas Immigration and Bahamas Customs,” said Verncie Walkine, NAD’s president and chief executive.

“Both agencies have been fantastic in terms of deploying their resources to meet the demands of the arrivals process. We have the assurance at the highest levels of both agencies that they will continue to ensure that adequate numbers of officers are assigned to cover the posts each day.”

Ms Walkine added: “LPIA had a projected passenger throughput on Saturday past of more than 6,200 arrivals, a number we have not seen in a while, so naturally we were concerned about potential long queues but I am delighted to report that both Immigration and Customs had full complements of officers on duty and the process went very smoothly.”
 Members of the Bahamas Customs Immigration and Allied Workers Union (BCIAWU) voted to go on strike last Friday in protest at the Government’s “failure” to address their concerns over medical coverage for non-uniformed staff, and other benefits payment of all utilities for persons on transfer and transportation allowances.

Labour Minister Shane Gibson said the union could not legally act on its strike vote because the matter had been referred to the Industrial Tribunal.