The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

TRADE Union Congress President Obie Ferguson yesterday said the TUC was “optimistic” that it would finally enter into “peaceful, civil negotiations” with Sandals Royal Bahamian on the construction of a new industrial agreement between the resort and the Bahamas Hotel Maintenance and Allied Workers Union.

Mr Ferguson said a letter was sent to the general manager of Sandals yesterday, with Minister of Labour Shane Gibson as an enclosed recipient, notifying him of the union’s intention to meet with Sandals officials to start deliberations on Friday morning. The Bahamas Hotel Maintenance and Allied Workers Union (BHMAWU) is an affiliate of the TUC.

He also said that as of the first of this month, an injunction preventing the BHMAWU from taking strike action was lifted by the Court of Appeal, which made “the way possible for Sandals and the Maintenance Union to sit and begin the process of negotiations.”

Henceforth, Mr Ferguson said the TUC and the BHMAWU would engage in “peaceful, civil negotiations” with the resort. However, he did not rule out the possibility of strike action.

“I think we are very optimistic, and we are very pleased with the ruling of the court,” he said. “I think the workers are happy as well. I look forward to meaningful and constructive negotiations. As the attorney in this mater, I am pleased myself. At the end of the day the law will prevail.

“The workers at Sandals can look forward to a peaceful, civil negotiation. I know people like to talk about a strike, and there is a strike vote pending, still active, but I think the union will take the route of negotiating. That’s all the union was asking for actually from 2006.”

When questioned by The Tribune on the possibility of failed negotiations with Sandals, Mr Ferguson said: “Then we’ll just have to go back to the drawing board.”

According to Mr Ferguson, Sandals has refused since 2006 to enter negotiations with the Maintenance Union amid a dispute over which entity – the BHMAWU or the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) – would be the bargaining agent for Sandals employees.