The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

IN THE lead-up to the 2012 general election, Labour Minister Shane Gibson said the Progressive Liberal Party did a good job of causing public service workers to believe their industrial matters would be settled.

Yesterday, Mr Gibson was asked to respond to criticisms from various labour unions that the Christie administration has failed to deliver on promises made as they campaigned for votes.

Over the past few weeks, various groups of unionised labourers, including Ministry of Works – roads and parks employees, hotel workers along with Customs and Immigration officers – have expressed anger that their requests for better working conditions and benefits have yet to be satisfactorily settled. Their discontent also sparked threats from unions to withhold their labour for three days.

Mr Gibson said: “One of the things that keeps us going is when you are able to create hope amongst people who otherwise felt that there was no hope in having the issues resolved.

“So we did a good job of identifying the issues and we did a good job of causing them to believe that we could make it right.”

The Minister added he was doubtful that every single industrial dispute could be settled, especially considering the complexity of certain issues.

“We have already started that process. From my days as a union president, I don’t know if it is possible to resolve every single dispute. That is not possible.

“That is why we have a dispute mechanism which says how you go through the process of trying to resolve them.

“So I won’t stand here and pretend that we are perfect and that we are able to deal with every single situation.

“But we always have an open door policy where we can have dialogue continue where even if you don’t resolve it right away sometimes things happen in a way where it takes time to have these matters resolved.”

As it stands, Mr Gibson told reporters the government is working assiduously around the clock to have outstanding issues resolved.

Prime Minister Perry Christie is expected to meet executives of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the National Congress of Trade Unions of the Bahamas (NCTUB) president John Pinder today.