The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The Bahamian staff at BTC were no doubt labouring under the assumption that the Bahamian government is the majority owner of BTC, by virtue of its ownership of 49 percent shares in addition to the two per cent shares which was transferred in the BTC Foundation in 2014.

Last August, it was announced that $5,930,200 worth of shares were transferred by CWC to the Bahamian government to be held in trust for the Bahamian people. This would mean that the government, and not CWC, controls 51 percent of BTC – yes?

What’s more, in March 2014 Bahamian Leon Williams was appointed as a special adviser to BTC chairman Phil Bentley. And then in June, he was promoted as BTC CEO.

If BTC is 51 per cent owned by the Bahamian people, and has a Bahamian CEO, how is it even remotely possible that Labour Minister Shane Gibson can state that the Christie administration is unable to prevent BTC minority owner CWC from laying-off in March 150 Bahamians?

With an estimated 30,000-plus Bahamians out of work, and another 6,000 about to enter the job market in June after graduating from school, why is CWC determined to hang out to dry so many Bahamians and their hundreds of dependents, especially when there are so few employment opportunities available?

I am not buying Gibson’s statement. The government has got to exercise its clout and demand that CWC change its course of action in order to protect those Bahamian workers.

CWC is a multibillion dollar global telecom company. This company is obviously not scrounging for money. Bahamians are just sick and tired of being like inanimate objects by some of these foreign investors, while white expatriates are living off the fat of the land.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama, 

February 19, 2015.