Hotel union votes in favour of strike

As of Saturday, January 17, 2015

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

Members of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union have voted in favour of a strike against the Meliá Nassau Beach Resort over a gratuity dispute.

It is believed all but one of those who voted were in favour of strike action.

The vote was held on Friday and came after eight persons were terminated from the Meliá on Tuesday night amid the dispute between the hotel and the BHCAWU over gratuity payments.

BHCAWU secretary general Darren Woods said the firings were a “scare tactic”, however, Meliá officials said the terminated employees did not meet performance standards.

Nonetheless, Mr Woods told The Tribune that the union would hold the strike vote to contest the matter, after several failed meetings with Baha Mar.

When contacted earlier Friday, Mr Woods said: “This our day today. We don’t want to hear from (Meliá) today. We want them hear from the workers today. When we had a chance to hear from them they didn’t want to talk to us. Now they’re going to hear from the employees today.”

The union filed a trade dispute with the Department of Labour after the management at Baha Mar withheld gratuity from employees until the parties could negotiate a new gratuity rate.

Last month, Baha Mar executives announced a reduction in the standard 15 per cent gratuity rate because it is moving to an all-inclusive model where food and amenities are covered in one price.

Baha Mar has said it was forced to cease the normal gratuity payments at the Meliá Nassau Beach Resort after 10 months of negotiations failed to bring an agreement with the union on a new arrangement.

However, Mr Woods has said that the union would not accept a reduction in gratuity because in most cases the gratuity represents the majority of the employees’ take-home pay.

On Christmas Eve, Baha Mar and its Meliá resort obtained a Supreme Court injunction barring the hotel union from taking any form of industrial action.

At that time, Mr Woods pledged that the union would seek to overturn the injunction or alter its terms.

On Wednesday, Mr Woods told Tribune Business that Supreme Court Justice Roy Jones had effectively cleared the way for it to take the strike vote.

The union, the Meliá’s operator and its Baha Mar owner will have to return to court next Wednesday for a further hearing before Justice Jones over whether that injunction should be removed or varied.

However, speaking after Wednesday’s hearing before Justice Jones, Mr Woods said the strike vote could proceed because the union was following the law when it came to holding such a poll.

ObserverOfChaos 9 years, 10 months ago

Apparently the Union offiicals and the people just can't get their head around "all inclusive" type establishments....as well as the fact that companies are fed up with their stupid little antic's of low performance then when companies demand more, striking....i hope and pray Baha Mar or Melia break the back of these unions! The unions are RUINING this country...they rank up there with our politicians as inept, ignorant and out dated!

TheMadHatter 9 years, 10 months ago

Don't they realize that they have been sold into bondage aboard a Chinese slave ship? The shackles are just not made of metal anymore.

It has nothing to do with black/white/yellow in this new slavery system - it is rich vs poor. The poor are overbreeding so rapidly, that they just have no leverage to argue anything with their "masters" or else they won't have enough money to buy food for their babies or pay their "light". Why do they do that?

Like Pres. Bush said, "It's a new world order." Time to play that old Bob Marley "Redemption Song."

TheMadHatter

Tarzan 9 years, 10 months ago

Good point Mad Hatter. Workers unite! If we play our cards right we can move rapidly to the standard of living experienced in Cuba. One meal a day of beans and rice and a window that sort of opens for air conditioning.

DillyTree 9 years, 10 months ago

Personally, I'd love to see the "mandatory gratuity" (a real ocymoron for real morons) done away with. Let the union nrgotiate proper wages for the workers so that tips are not figured into the equation, and basing them on a higher government-mandated minimum wage.

Let employees EARN their tips instead of them being mandatory handouts. This way, there is more motivation to provide good service. And having lost our prime spot in being #1 in tourism -- largely because of high costs and lousy service, we can't afford not to improve in this regard. Doing away with "mandatory gratuities" would be a good start.

I happily tip for good service, and tip the waitstaff/housekeeper/etc. directly as I never know if they actually see the 15% gratuity. Many whom I've asked either say "no" or give an awkward shrug. Let tipping be a reward for good sevice, not something for nothing.

Unions do little for their members as it is, and often make employers less inclined to work with them because of the entrenched "what's in it for me" entitlement attitude that comes with it. If the union was really wanting to protect their workers, they'd be howling to government to raise the miniumum wage to a livable standard instead of posturing and whining. .