The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

JOHN Pinder, the Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) president, said yesterday his organisation will not take part in the Trade Union Congress (TUC) action and urged his 13,000 members not to get involved in a “nonsensical strike” planned by a few “greedy people” that could cost them their jobs.

He said it is not his members “fault that the TUC does not know how to negotiate” or work with the government. “Nobody has given me any real or sensible reason why we should strike,” Mr Pinder told The Tribune.

“As far as I know, things between the government and the unions are fine. So I have no idea what they are looking for. If their leader does not have the skills to bargain properly on their behalf that is their problem.”

“I think they are just upset because I was able to get more money for my people and they want more money for overtime. I do not want my members to be in that fight. Mr Ferguson is misleading his members, promising them the sky when he can’t deliver. My members can lose their jobs if they participate in this.

“BPSU is not in possession of any certificate for a general strike. There is a process and that has not been done. The TUC is saying they want to strike: that is fine but I am fighting for some of my members to be established, to be permanent and pensionable and they can jeopardise all of that by participating in something like this, especially a strike that doesn’t make sense.”

Mr Pinder said if the Customs and Immigration Union wanted to be represented “properly” they should have stayed in the BPSU.

He said: “They left and now they have not gained one thing, not one penny. Now they want what my members get. Mr Ferguson is looking for numbers, he needs numbers so he wants my people to participate. Striking is not the way to get money from the government, especially one that doesn’t have any money. The government is introducing VAT because they don’t have any money. I squeezed a little out of them because I know how to negotiate. I know one thing: we are not participating in a strike, especially if it is an illegal strike.

“I asked the TUC to provide us with their concerns but they could not provide us with anything fundamental.”